THE GARVIN HOUSE

The Journey of a Freedman’s Family Bluffton, South Carolina

C. 1891 Cyrus Garvin

Prepared by: Melanie Marks and Patricia Hines CT House Histories, LLC Fairfield, Connecticut/Bluffton, South Carolina

November, 2016 The Journey of a Freedman’s Family November, 2016

Acknowledgements

This report and Appendices represents the distillation of countless documents, images and opinions – the collection of which would not have been possible without the kind and patient assistance of certain people. The authors are especially grateful to the following:

Mary Ann Stender Bagwell, William Gaston Allen descendant, Clemson, South Carolina Pamelia Baxley, Senior Clerk, Beaufort County Registrar of Deeds, Beaufort, SC Pearl Boynes, Board of Directors Member, Guyton Historical Society, Guyton, Georgia Miss Ruth Brown, “Recollections of the Garvin/Garvey Family,” personal interview, Bluffton, SC LeRoy “Bubba” Chisholm, parishioner of St. Matthews Baptist Church, Bluffton, SC Theresa Yasin, Office of Vital Records, Bureau of Vital Statistics, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 125 Worth Street, NY, NY City Clerk, New York City Department of Records, Municipal Archiver, 31 Chambers Street, NY, NY Alexander Clay, Joseph S. Baynard’s great-grandson, Guyton, Georgia Carolyn M. Coppola, Executive Director, Celebrate Bluffton, Inc., Bluffton, SC Grace Morris Cordial, CA, Manager, Beaufort District Collection: the Beaufort County Library’s Special Local History Collection and Archives Department, Beaufort, SC Barbara Derrick, Director of Administration, Assistant State Registrar, South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, Vital Records, Columbia, SC Joseph P. DiTroia, Director, U. S. Columbarium Company/Fresh Pond Cemetery, Middle Village, Queens, NY Wade Dorsey, Reference Archivist, South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, SC Graham Duncan, Manuscripts Division, South Caroliniana Library, Columbia, South Carolina Ms. Virginia L. Ellison, MLIS, Archivist, South Carolina Historical Society, Charleston, SC Jeff Fulgham, Director, Bluffton Historical Preservation Society, Bluffton, SC Patricia Garvin, Court Administrator and Division Chief of Guardianships and Conservatorships, Beaufort County Probate Court, Beaufort, SC Miss Cora Henderson, District of Columbia Department of Health, Vital Records Division, Washington, DC Heritage Library, Hilton Head, South Carolina Mary Lamie, Researcher, Beaufort County Registrar of Deeds, Beaufort, SC Jacob Martin. “Recollections of the Garvin/Garvey Family.”, Personal interview, Bluffton, SC Gwen Mayhew, Librarian for Instruction and Inter-library Services, Thomas J. Watson Library, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York Emmett and Teddy McCracken, Bluffton, SC

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Rose Mohyla, Clerk, Mount Olivet Cemetery, Maspeth, NY Mrs. Joann Oliver, District of Columbian Department of Health, Vital Records Division, Washington, DC Joanne Quinn, Clerk, Mount Olivet Cemetery, Maspeth, NY Miss Betty Renfro, Secretary, Historic Effingham Society, Springfield, Georgia Nelly Rivera, Clerk, Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, NY Edward Schmitt, Foreman, Mount Olivet Cemetery, Maspeth, NY Erin Schumacher, Senior Planner, Town of Bluffton, Bluffton, SC Shirley Smith, Chief Registrar, Beaufort County Registrar of Deeds, Beaufort, SC Dr. Mary Socci, Archaeologist, Palmetto Bluff Conservancy, Bluffton, SC Dr. Phillip Stone, Archivist, Sandor Teszler Library, Wofford College, Spartanburg, SC Ashley Sylva, Preservation Associate, Beaufort District Collection: the Beaufort County Library’s Special Local History Collection and Archives Department, Beaufort, SC Roderick (Tony) Thomas, Director, U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Long Island National Cemetery, Farmingdale, Long Island, NY Steve Tuttle, South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, SC Barbara J. Veiock, Information and Events Coordinator, City of Savannah Department of Cemeteries, Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah, Georgia Patricia Walls, Parishioner & Financial Secretary, St Matthews Baptist Church, Bluffton, SC

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“Slaves were not brought to America. Africans were brought to America, and there they were enslaved.”

Edward Ball “Slaves in the Family”

(reprinted with the permission of the author)

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Freedman’s Family

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Prologue Bluffton, South Carolina, in 1870 – the year Cyrus Garvin built his house – was in the midst of Reconstruction, which began in full the year the destructive and brutal American Civil War ended.

The war between the North and South raged from 1861 to 1865, leaving in its wake thousands of lives lost and properties destroyed. Bluffton not only was the site of the “Bluffton Movement,” (fig. 1) which was launched in 1844 and led to the state’s secession from the Union, but it was the scene of a particularly fierce battle between Union and Confederate forces that resulted in the town being ravished by fire in 1863 (fig. 2).

One wonders, as we delve into the Cyrus Garvin house and its occupants, why this freed slave decided to build a house in war-torn Bluffton and raise his family there. We will never know his thinking, but we can make a few educated guesses. One being, simply, it was home. The only one he knew.

We will follow the Garvin family through the years – from Cyrus’ time as a slave to when he became a freedman. We will discover that he was a shrewd and innately talented businessman and land speculator, knew how to work with his hands, successfully cultivated the land and relationships, and held deep religious beliefs.

Cyrus Garvin’s simple house – which we presume he built himself – was typical of the style during the Reconstruction period in our nation’s history. Many historians and others point to its being a good example of South Carolina Lowcountry vernacular architecture of the late 19th century.

In the 2015 “Structural Assessment and Preservation Plan” completed by Meadors Inc., the house is described as:

“utilizing combination framing technique using indigenous materials to create an original hall- parlor plan with shed extensions. Traditional building techniques in the structure include hand- hewn timbers and notching and Anglo methods introduced through Union occupation of Hilton Head Island (milled lumber and fabricated materials). The floor plan constitutes a 20th c., Georgian modernization of the common hall-parlor folk house, modifying it into a more refined I-house plan. The Garvin House is believed to be one of the earliest known freedmen owned houses still extant on the May River.”

One must be in awe of a man – a former slave – who was able to live, work and prosper in the period from 1865 to 1877 when the uneasy Reconstruction era was tense for all involved. What began as promising in the beginning soon degenerated with more divisiveness and strife.

At the heart of the War Between the States was the issue of slavery – in full force in the South but abolished years earlier in the North. The Emancipation Proclamation (fig. 3) was issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863 – when the Civil War was entering into three years – and declared that “all persons held as slaves” in the rebellious states “are, and henceforward, shall be free.”

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But, according to the National Archives and Records Administration, the proclamation was limited.

“It applied only to states that had seceded from the Union, leaving slavery untouched in the loyal border states. It also expressly exempted parts of the Confederacy that had already come under Northern control. Most important, the freedom it promised depended upon Union military victory.

“Although the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in the nation, it captured the hearts and imagination of millions of Americans and fundamentally transformed the character of the war. After January 1, 1863, every advance of federal troops expanded the domain of freedom. Moreover, the Proclamation announced the acceptance of black men into the Union Army and Navy, enabling the liberated to become liberators. By the end of the war, almost 200,000 black soldiers and sailors had fought for the Union and freedom.

“From the first days of the Civil War, slaves had acted to secure their own liberty. The Emancipation Proclamation confirmed their insistence that the war for the Union must become a war for freedom. It added moral force to the Union cause and strengthened the Union both militarily and politically. As a milestone along the road to slavery's final destruction, the Emancipation Proclamation has assumed a place among the great documents of human freedom.”

The Lowcountry Digital History Initiative’s “After Slavery: Race, Labor and Politics in the Post- Emancipation Carolinas” provides a further explanation.

“Still, the process of emancipation was most fundamentally about bringing an end to an unjust system of forced labor. The bitter conflict that developed after 1865 between freed slaves and their former masters revolved around crucial questions of what freedom would mean and who would define its boundaries. For the most part, ex-masters accepted that legal slavery was gone for good, but they hoped to rebuild a society that kept blacks ‘in their place’ – poor, landless, and dependent on whites. In many ways, they sought to resurrect a labor system as close to the condition of slavery as possible.

“Freedpeople aspired to the exact opposite: they wanted independence from their former masters, land ownership to ensure this independence, and a measure of prosperity. They aspired to a life free from the indignities and privations they associated with slavery. Former slaves sought not only an end to racial discrimination or relief from southern white cultural domination, but also a fundamental change in the social and economic order that had underpinned slavery. They wanted a full revolution in social relations.

“…ex-slaves were by no means passive bystanders in this attempt to ‘achieve democracy for the working millions.’ In the weeks, months, and years after slavery ended, the black laboring poor of the U.S. South attempted to carve out a new society that conformed to their aspirations. This transformation took place in a range of contexts – on plantations, artisan workshops, urban households, and port-city docks; in churches and on the stump at outdoor mass meetings; and in state legislatures and local meetings of the Union and Loyal Leagues. Sometimes freedpeople

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The Journey of a Freedman’s Family November, 2016 were joined by poor whites bearing their own resentments and grievances against the planter elite; at other times they faced near-unanimous white hostility. On occasion freedpeople were aided by the determined commitment of Republican officials, army officers, and Freedmen’s Bureau agents; but at other times federal authorities considered them a nuisance and did their best to undermine the ex-slaves’ struggles to build a new world from the old.”

It wasn’t until the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which declared “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction,” was passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified by the states on December 6, 1865, that slavery was abolished.

But the Reconstruction period that followed was a tumultuous time – fraught with anger, suspicion, skepticism, violence and fear. To obtain a clear picture of the significance of Cyrus Garvin’s efforts and achievements, let’s briefly recap the years from 1865 to 1877.

The Civil War ended on April 9, 1865, when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox in Virginia. The next month President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, but in the months preceding his death he had begun the process of Reconstruction to bring the Southern states back into the Union. Among the actions taken was the establishment of the Freedmen’s Bureau – or more formally known as the “Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands,” which remained in effect until 1872 – that was a federal government agency established in 1865 to aid freed slaves in the South during Reconstruction.

Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson, a southern Democrat, called for general amnesty and a restoration of property to all Southerners swearing allegiance to the Union. His order, however, excluded former slaves. By the end of the summer of 1865, Johnson ordered the restoration of land to former white owners.

An earlier effort in 1861 and 1862 to distribute land to slaves was the Port Royal Experiment, which began after the Union took over the Sea Islands of Beaufort District in November. The white plantation owners fled and abandoned their properties, leaving behind 10,000 slaves. Since they were still not legally free, the slaves were considered “contrabands” and came under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

According to The South Carolina Encyclopedia, in an entry written by Lawrence S. Rowland:

“The combination of federal efforts to assist and employ the Sea Island blacks and the efforts of several philanthropic and missionary organizations to prepare the ‘contrabands’ for emancipation led to the Port Royal Experiment. While the federal government concentrated on employing the ‘contrabands’ to harvest and process the valuable Sea Island cotton, philanthropic organizations and religious missionaries assumed the task of providing education, which the Sea Island blacks eagerly sought. Both the government and private charities provided food, clothing, and medical assistance.”

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The entry continued:

“The partnership between the federal government and various philanthropic agencies to carry out humanitarian enterprises among the Sea Island blacks continued throughout the war. Notable among their achievements was the establishment of private freedmen’s schools that continued a century and a half after the Port Royal Experiment ended. The Mather School on Port Royal Island survived until the 1960s, and the Penn School on St. Helena Island continued into the twenty-first century as the Penn Community Center.”

Following emancipation in 1863, the Port Royal Experiment redistributed abandoned plantation lands to the former slaves (figs. 4 & 5).

“Under the authority of the U.S. Direct Tax Act of 1862, most of the Sea Island plantations in Beaufort District were seized for nonpayment of taxes. Leaders of the Port Royal Experiment lobbied the federal government to distribute this land in small parcels to the freedmen. Of the 101,930 acres seized, approximately one-third was purchased on favorable terms by the freedmen. Much of Beaufort County retained the character of small black landholding into the twenty-first century.”

A year after the war ended and Reconstruction began in earnest, the Ku Klux Klan was created in 1866 in Tennessee to retain white supremacy and resist the Republican Party’s Reconstruction policies, which would give former slaves political and economic opportunities.

Two years before Cyrus Garvin built his house on land owned by Joseph S. Baynard, South Carolina was readmitted to the Union. That same year, 1868, the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified in July. Section I of the amendment reads:

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Former slaves, like Cyrus Garvin, were given all the same protections and freedoms afforded whites. But political turmoil between Congress and the office of the president – Johnson and his successor, Grant – raged for years.

In 1870, the year Cyrus Garvin built his house, the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified giving black men the right to vote (fig. 6). Section I of the amendment reads:

“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

But according to the Library of Congress, it would be years before the right was fully enforced.

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“Although ratified on February 3, 1870, the promise of the 15th Amendment would not be fully realized for almost a century. Through the use of poll taxes, literacy tests and other means, Southern states were able to effectively disenfranchise African Americans. It would take the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 before the majority of African Americans in the South were registered to vote.”

From 1870 to 1877, more violence, mistrust, corruption, and successes and failures occurred. In 1875, the Republican-led Congress, before it was replaced by the incoming Democrats, passed the Civil Rights Act that prohibited segregation in public accommodations and transportation and exclusion from jury service. Grant signed it into law, but the U.S. Supreme Court struck it down in 1883, ruling that sections of the act were unconstitutional.

On March 4, 1877, according to PBS’ “American Experience”:

“Following a bitterly disputed presidential contest between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel Tilden, in which both candidates claim victory, Hayes is declared the president. In a back-room political deal, the Republicans agree to abandon Reconstruction policies in exchange for the presidency.

“Reconstruction policies officially end. The South codifies and enforces segregation. Violations of black civil rights will not command national attention again until after World War II.”

Some of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was later incorporated into the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968.

Amazingly, throughout it all and until he died, Cyrus Garvin survived and prospered in a community so ravaged by the Civil War, which, if you’ll recall, started in South Carolina when the first shots were fired from Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861.

So who was this man who made his home on a bluff along the May River? Let’s take a look.

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Cyrus Garvin – The Early Years Cyrus Garvin was born into slavery about 1820 in South Carolina to, quite possibly, an African- American mother and her white master, James Garvey, the owner of the Garvey Hall Plantation. Evidence of his mixed-raced heritage can be seen in a census record, which designated him as “mulatto.”

While we believe Cyrus was a slave on the Garvey Hall Plantation, his later years in the employ of Joseph S. Baynard are important in telling his story as a freedman.

First, some background on three families crucial to our story – the Garveys, the Allens and the Baynards.

James and Michael Garvey were brothers – the sons of John Garvey, who came to South Carolina from Antigua. Both James and Michael were born in South Carolina. When John died in 1767 at the age of 50, he left his property and his slaves to his two sons with the stipulation that if one predeceased the other, his share would go to the surviving brother.

Michael Garvey was married to Susannah Stoll and they had Mary Lucia Garvey (fig. 7) in 1783. But two years after Mary Lucia’s birth, her father died at the age of 29. Michael bequeathed a few items to his widow and children but the property that he inherited from his father went to his brother, James.

We were able to track James to the 1810 U.S. Census when he was 58 years old and living in St. Luke’s Parish (Bluffton) in Beaufort County. He had 54 slaves, but he appeared to be the only other person living on the property. We know he married a woman named Ann Bryan Bull and that they had children, but we are uncertain if they had any children together. The trail for James stops at 1810. We do not know the exact date of James’ death and records indicate that neither his wife nor any children survived him.

Therefore, it is our contention that his niece, Mary Lucia Garvey – the daughter of Michael Garvey and Susannah Stoll and most likely the only living Garvey heir – inherited the plantation and the slaves after her uncle died.

In either 1802 or 1810 (depending on the record consulted), Mary Lucia Garvey married George Allen, who was born in 1781 in Orange County, North Carolina, to Samuel Allen and Sarah Armstrong. He practiced law in Augusta, Georgia, according to A History and Genealogy of the Families of Bellinger and DeVaux and other families by J.G. Bulloch, M.D. George Allen and Mary Lucia Garvey married at “The Point” (along the Okatie Creek in Bluffton) and lived there for several years with her mother, Susannah, who was a widow for the second time.

Susannah had married John Lewis Bourquin Jr., who died in 1799. At the time her daughter married George Allen, Susannah was living in St. Luke’s Parish when the 1810 U.S. Census was taken. She owned 82 slaves. Susannah died on February 10, 1816.

Mary Lucia and George Allen had four children, but two of them, George and William Gaston, are important to our story of the life of Cyrus Garvin. After George Allen Sr.’s death, which has

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been recorded as occurring in 1821 though no location has been found, we believe that his sons, George and William Gaston, owned and ran the Garvey Hall Plantation. Our contention is given some credence when viewing pages from the family bible, in which it was noted that some of William’s children were born “at Garvey.” (fig. 8)

We presumed that George Sr.’s widow, Mary Lucia, went to live with one of her sons after his death. Indeed, in the 1850 U.S. Census, we find her living with her youngest son, William Gaston Allen, and his family in Bluffton in what is now called the Allen-Lockwood House (fig. 9).

She died on September 13, 1856, in the Allen-Lockwood House (fig. 10) and her death was recorded in the family bible:

“Died at Bluffton, St. Lukes Parish, So Ca; on the 13th day of September AD, 1856, Mary Lucia (Garvey) Allen, relic Allen of the late Dr. G.R. Allen of New River in the 74th year of her age”

Her burial place is unknown. An Allen Cemetery, though, reportedly is located on the property that once was the Garvey Hall Plantation.

Well, at least one Bluffton resident we interviewed, Leroy “Bubba” Chisolm, knows the cemetery quite well. While working on maintenance at St. Matthew’s Baptist Church one day, we stopped to talk to him. (Incidentally, St. Matthew’s will come up again in this report.) When asked if he heard of the cemetery, he replied:

“Know about it? Yes, ma’am, I do. My daddy, grandmammie, grandpappie, uncle and my first cousins are buried there. My momma is buried in Rephraim.”

To gain access to the cemetery, Bubba, whose father’s name also was Leroy, said there is a dirt road just a few ways down on the left past St. Matthew’s. He said there’s a light pole with wires coming down. It has a gate that sometimes is chained.

The cemetery is a “little overgrown,” he added, with “snakes, rattlesnakes” and that “with the Lord’s help they will clean it up a bit.”

Now let’s discuss Allens’ sons, George and William Gaston.

George was born on September 22, 1818, in Hillsboro, North Carolina. On May 11, 1843, he married Alice Screven Guerard (fig. 11), who was born in South Carolina on July 26, 1826, to Dr. Jacob De Veaux Guerard (fig. 12) and Alice Screven (fig. 13), according to A History and Genealogy of the Families of Bellinger and DeVaux and other families. George and Alice had 11 children, one of whom – Alice Guerard Allen, their fourth oldest child – is crucial to our story, but we will return to her more fully later in this narrative.

But, briefly, Alice was born on January 16, 1850, in Marietta, Georgia. At the time of her birth, her father was a 31-year-old farmer with an estimated real estate value of $6,000, according to

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The Journey of a Freedman’s Family November, 2016 the 1850 U.S. Census. According to the 1850 U.S. Federal Census Slave Schedules, George owned 16 slaves on his plantation. But the following year, 1851, he indicated he had only seven slaves, according to the Georgia Property Tax Digests, 1793-1892.

It’s possible that George reduced the size of his plantation for his eventual career move – Methodist minister. Sometime between 1850 and 1853, he became an ordained minister. Reverend George Allen is credited with leading the building of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Old Town Bluffton in 1853. The church was damaged in the 1863 burning of Bluffton by Union forces during the Civil War.

Now called Campbell Chapel AME Church (fig. 14), it is the oldest sanctuary in Old Town Bluffton, according to the church’s website.

“It was purchased from the Bluffton Methodist Church in 1874 by nine former slaves, who were looking for a building to establish a church under the auspices of a black denomination spreading over the South called the African Methodist Episcopal Church.”

Obviously, Reverend George Allen moved his family to South Carolina after the 1850 U.S. Census was taken. And by the time the 1860 U.S. Census was taken, Reverend George Allen and his family were living in St. Luke’s Parish, South Carolina, and probably on or near the property known as the Garvey Hall Plantation, which was being run daily by his brother, William Gaston Allen.

The 1860 U.S. Census gives us an idea of the area and the neighbors. Rev. George and his wife, Alice, and seven of their children were living on property next door to his brother, William Gaston. George, whose occupation was designated as “Methodist clergyman,” had $4,500 in real estate value and $20,000 in personal property. His brother, listed as “planter,” was a wealthy plantation owner with $40,000 in real estate value and $54,000 in personal property. One of their neighbors was James Stoney, an Episcopal clergyman, and his family [Church of the Cross].

Where was the subject of our inquiry – Cyrus Garvin? Our theory is that he was a slave on the Garvey Hall Plantation, which, if you’ll recall, was inherited by Mary Lucia Garvey after the death of both her father, Michael, then her uncle, James. After her death in 1856 and with her sons owning the plantation, we presume Cyrus was still working the fields for the Allens.

On June 27, 1873, at the age of 54, Reverend George Allen died in Savannah, Georgia. His simple gravestone (fig. 15) at Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah is inscribed with the words: “Asleep in Jesus.”

After his death, a tribute was published in the Southern Christian Advocate for the Methodist Episcopal Church of South Macon, Georgia, on August 27, 1873, describing the reverend’s life and character:

“Brother Allen has left a widow and large family to mourn his loss. His death was not unexpected, as he had been in a feeble state of health for some years past. In January, 1863, when I was sent to Abbeville district, South Carolina Conference, I met him for the first time. He

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was then a refugee from Bluffton. His [illegible] was the home of the itinerant and his hospitality was of the scriptural type. He impressed me at once as a man ‘fearing God and working righteousness.’ Through a close intimacy of more than three years these impressions were [illegible] and confirmed. When he died (at the age of about fifty-five years) he had been twenty- three years a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In his preaching, he was plain, practical and useful. He was specially anxious to preach to those who were denied the ordinary services of the sanctuary. He went out into the highways and hedges. In his family I have never known a happier man. Our dear brother has gone to his reward. I doubt not his will be a rich inheritance. His earthly inheritance was swept away by the fortunes of war, but he had another and better laid up in heaven. We shall meet him again on that sun-bright shore.”

The tribute was signed by Thomas Galbraith Herbert, a Methodist minister well-known in his own right.

Bonaventure Cemetery (fig. 16) was developed on the site of the Bonaventure Plantation. (We’ll discover that one of the individuals connected to Cyrus Garvin was instrumental in establishing the cemetery.) An entry on the city’s website, www.savannahga.gov, describes the property as such:

“The peaceful setting rests on a scenic bluff of the Wilmington River, east of Savannah. The site was purchased for a private cemetery in 1846 and became a public cemetery in 1907. Citizens and others can still purchase interment rights in Bonaventure. This charming site has been a world famous tourist destination for more than 150 years due to the old tree-lined roadways, the many notable persons interred, the unique cemetery sculpture and architecture, and the folklore associated with the site and the people.”

Three years after her husband’s death, Alice Screven Guerard Allen died on September 21, 1876, in Savannah. She was 50 years old. She is buried with her husband in Bonaventure, and the inscription on her headstone (fig. 17), which fell off its base and is resting on the ground, reads:

“Enter thou into the joy of the Lord.”

Buried with George and Alice is their granddaughter, Alice Partridge, who died on January 12, 1897, at the age of 16 – and another, unrelated person. Here’s what happened:

Bonaventure, already famous because of who is buried there, was made infamous with the 1994 publishing of John Berendt’s book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and the subsequent 1997 movie of the same title. Among the people buried in Bonaventure are songwriter Johnny Mercer (integral to the Midnight book and movie), Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Conrad Aiken and Confederate Brigadier General Robert H. Anderson. Bonaventure’s popularity – both as a burial site and a tourist attraction – is renowned.

In 1988, the City of Savannah filed a civil action on George Allen Jr., who owned Lot 74, Section E, where George and the two Alices are buried, but was unused and, therefore, considered abandoned. The empty plot was sold to someone else, and Robert Palemon Glorieux, who died in 1995, was buried with the Allen family.

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As for Reverend George’s brother, William Gaston Allen, he was born on April 17, 1821, in Augusta, Georgia. On June 5, 1845, he married Susan Virginia Bolan, who was born on January 19, 1827, at Bolan’s Hall in South Carolina. They had eight children, three of whom were born on the Garvey Hall Plantation, which was operated by their father. Documentation that three of the children were born “at Garvey” was contained within the pages of the family bible.

As we’ve already noted, William Gaston was a wealthy and prosperous planter, and, in 1860, he owned 2,200 acres of land and 73 slaves, according to No. II a Longer Short History of Bluffton, South Carolina and its Environs, which was published by the Bluffton Historical Preservation Society in 1988. Presumably, one of those slaves was Cyrus Garvin.

To give the reader an idea of how large and successful his plantation was, in the 1850 Agricultural Census for St. Luke’s Parish, he noted that he had six horses, four asses/mules, 15 milch cows, eight working oxen, 60 other cattle, 30 sheep and 28 swine. The plantation produced, as of June 1, 1850, 598,000 pounds of rice as well as peas, beans, sweet potatoes and butter. The 1850 Slave Schedule noted that he had 96 slaves – all listed as black. Was Cyrus Garvin one of them? We can only presume so since the schedule does not list slaves by name.

At the height of his success, William Gaston built a summer house on the northwest corner of Calhoun and Water streets in Bluffton in 1850 for his wife, Susan Virginia, and their six children. According to No. II a Longer Short History of Bluffton, South Carolina and its Environs:

“The house is a classic example of a typical Lowcountry summer cottage or Carolina farmhouse with its gable roof, commodious high ceilinged rooms and numerous windows for cross- ventilation. It is raised several feet off the ground on brick piers to encourage the circulation of air beneath the house. A most necessary feature in this climate is the wide porch or piazza, which spans the south façade.”

The house was later purchased by his daughter, Susan Virginia, who was married to Thomas Postell Lockwood, for $10 in 1873 in a forced sale. No. II a Longer Short History of Bluffton, South Carolina and its Environs reported that the house remained in the family’s hands until 1953.

While the 1860 U.S. Census shows that he reportedly had nearly $100,000 in real and personal property, William Gaston’s situation drastically changed following the Civil War. By 1868, he was bankrupt, according to No. II a Longer Short History of Bluffton, South Carolina and its Environs and other sources. We can only speculate that William Gaston’s good fortune disappeared because of the Civil War, which ravaged numerous Southern communities, including Bluffton. It would seem, as well, that he did quite a bit of business with the Confederate government during the war, according to documents found on fold3.com (fig. 18). No longer having the government as a customer also could have contributed to his bankruptcy.

Prior to his filing bankruptcy (fig. 19), Garvey Hall Plantation was sold to the Jenkins family, in the early 1860s, according to the Beaufort County Deed Books. On May 16, 1863, Margaret Glover Jenkins, the wife of Adam Hubley Jenkins, had changed her trustee from Richard Jenkins

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(relationship unknown) to her son, John Jenkins. At some point, Margaret requested that Garvey Hall be sold because she and her husband deemed it valueless. On January 1, 1873, John Jenkins sold the 2,100-acre Garvey Hall for $7,000 to James Douglas Robertson, whose wife, Anna, was the sister of Alice Screvens Guerard Allen. In May of that year, he deeded the plantation to Anna.

While we can’t know for sure, we might presume that Cyrus Garvin continued on the Garvey Hall Plantation under the new owners, the Jenkins family. We shall soon see what happened to him following the war.

William Gaston, as well as his brother, George, was granted a presidential pardon by Andrew Johnson following the war, provided that they swore allegiance to the Union. He apparently left Bluffton and went to Abbeville, South Carolina, right after the war, but later returned to Bluffton, based on the U.S. Census records for 1870 and 1880.

When the 1870 U.S. Census was taken, William Gaston’s personal worth had plummeted to a total of $750 and he had no occupation. At 49 years old and unemployed, he had to support his wife and seven children, all of whom were living in Bluffton.

His wife, Susan, died on June 8, 1879, at the age of 53 from consumption of the bowels. A widower, William Gaston was living in Bluffton with three of his daughters when the 1880 U.S. Census was taken. At 59 years old, he was working as a mail carrier. Interestingly, his daughter, Susan, was appointed the Bluffton postmaster in 1885, followed by her sister, Edith, in 1886.

We do not know when William Gaston died, which could have been in 1893. Where he and his wife are buried is a mystery but it is possible they were buried in the Allen cemetery on the Garvey Hall Plantation.

Cyrus Garvin – During the Civil War The Civil War ravaged the South. Bluffton was devastated by Union forces who took over the town, even setting it afire. Settled in 1728 and founded in 1852, Bluffton – at one time known as “Indian Lands” – was built on two adjoining parcels in an area called Devil’s Elbow Barony.

According to www.bluffton.com:

“The first homes were constructed during the early 19th century by area plantation owners seeking the high ground and cool river breezes as an escape from the unhealthy conditions present on Lowcountry rice and cotton plantations. Easy access by water provided more incentive for expansion and the many tidal coves afforded excellent locations for residences. The first streets were formally laid out during the mid-19th century and the name of Bluffton decided upon during the same period.”

The bluffton.com article continued:

“Within one year of the capture of Fort Sumter, Bluffton became a safe haven for residents fleeing Union occupation of the South Carolina barrier islands. Bluffton was a headquarters for

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Confederate forces until Union forces on Hilton Head Island ordered the Town’s destruction in 1863. Approximately 60 structures were in the Town before the attack, only the Town’s two churches and fifteen residences remained standing after the attack.

“On June 4, 1863, several Union gunboats and a transport carrying 1,000 infantrymen steamed up the river to Bluffton because, as the officer in charge wrote in his report, ‘This town has been the headquarters for the rebels for a long time in this vicinity.’ Troops were landed with orders to fire the town. Confederate soldiers attacked but were outnumbered and outgunned. When shelling and torching ended and the Union forces withdrew, 34 or more homes, churches and other buildings had been destroyed. This, of course, was a severe blow to the town which took years to overcome.

“Rebuilding came slowly as few local landowners could still afford the luxury of a summer home in Bluffton. The Town did not experience a true rebuilding until the 1880s, when the Town emerged as a commercial center for Beaufort County. The Town remained a commercial center until the Coastal Highway (US 17) and the bridge at Port Wentworth over the Savannah River were completed, making riverboat trade and travel less attractive. The Great Depression, beginning shortly thereafter, brought the closure of the Town’s prosperity and commercial importance. The popularity of the Town as a vacation spot remained even after its loss of commercial stature.”

One of those people who had a summer home in Bluffton and planting ground elsewhere was Joseph Scott Baynard, who factors into the life of Cyrus Garvin for three important reasons – the widely-held belief that Cyrus was one of Baynard’s slaves, that he allowed the freedman to build a house on his property and then sold him that very same land. But more on all of that later. First, let’s explore the Baynards – who had deep Southern roots.

The Baynard family’s South Carolina journey began on the Sea Islands (fig. 20). A History and Genealogy of the Habersham Family by Joseph Gaston Baillie Bulloch, M.D., published in 1901, stated:

“This family, of Edisto Island, were planters and well known people … We can imagine the wealth and great style of these planters of St. Helena Parish, Port Royal and Edisto Island, and we see by records how patriotic they were during the Revolution.”

Joseph Scott Baynard’s father was William Eddings Baynard, who was born on February 2, 1800, on Edisto Island, and married Catherine Adelaide Scott, born in 1812. William was the son of Thomas Baynard and Sally Calder.

William E. Baynard was a wealthy plantation owner. According to the article “The Stoneys, the Baynards, and Their Mansion” by Lyman Wooster on the Heritage Library website:

“William Eddings Baynard came to Hilton Head from Edisto; at the time he acquired the Braddock Point property he already owned Spanish Wells and Muddy Creek Plantations on Hilton Head, and there at those plantations and at Braddock Point he raised the well-regarded and highly profitable Sea Island (long-staple) cotton .A research project by the Chicora

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Foundation provides some data on Baynard’s Braddock Point Plantation. Its report notes that an 1850 South Carolina Agriculture Census indicates that the plantation produced 36 bales of cotton (a bale or bag of long staple cotton weighed between 300 and 400 pounds), 1,000 bushels of corn, 500 bushels of peas, 1,000 bushels of sweet potatoes, and 350 pounds of butter. It was estimated that crops and animals were valued at $12,000, a sizeable amount in 1850 dollars. The Chicora report noted that ‘in comparison with other known Hilton Head plantations the Baynard Plantation appears to meet the norm – clearly more wealthy than some, less than others.’”

The property was originally owned by the Stoney Family. According to the article on the Heritage Library website:

“John (Captain Jack) Stoney, born in Tipperary, Ireland, and his wife, Elizabeth, arrived in South Carolina in 1774 in his own merchant vessel, the ‘Saucy Jack.’ He engaged in America’s War for Independence as a privateer, acquired a sizable fortune in the process, and purchased the 1,000-acre Braddock Point Plantation in 1776. Stoney was one of four Hilton Head patriots honored by the local chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution for their role in America’s struggle for independence, all of whom are buried in the Zion Cemetery. The cemetery is at the junction of US-278 and Matthews Drive.

“In 1793, Stoney, with the help of slave laborers, began the construction of a mansion on the Braddock Point Plantation. It was a structure, 40 by 46 feet, with a tabby foundation. When completed it probably appeared much larger than its 1840 square feet for it apparently had a front porch and may have had another porch that was in effect a wrap-around affair.”

After John Stoney died in 1821, the property, known as Braddock Point, was left to his sons.

“The Stoneys, who became in the early part of the 19th century the largest land owners on Hilton Head, had two sons who lived to maturity and were in effect partners after their father died. John moved to Charleston where he was a merchant and apparently the manager of the Hilton Head plantations’ finances, while James remained on the island overseeing the property’s agriculture production. That property was considerable: at one time Stoneys owned Fairfield, Possum Point, Shipyard, and Honey Horn Plantations as well as Braddock Point.

“James died in 1827, and John, known as ‘Saucy Jack,’ died in 1838, by which time the Stoney property had been mortgaged to the Bank of Charleston. A melodramatic tale that has received frequent retelling is that ‘Saucy Jack’ lost the Braddock Point property to William E. Baynard in a high-stakes poker game. It is more likely that Baynard purchased the 1,000 acre plantation from the Charleston bank for $10,000 in 1840.”

The Chicora Foundation Research report mentioned in the Heritage Library article further elaborated on the history:

“Baynard held the property from 1845 to 1847, and while this was a period of expansionism for him, it seems doubtful that there was enough time to do more than make plans for the future of Braddock's Point. After William Baynard’s death the property was managed by his son until Hilton Head fell to Union troops in 1861. As an absentee owner, or at least manager, of his

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The Journey of a Freedman’s Family November, 2016 father’s plantations, it is unlikely that Ephraim Baynard would have made major changes in the plantation.”

The Heritage Library article added:

“The Baynard holdings were inherited by William’s son, Ephraim, who retained and managed them until 1861. When the Union Army occupied the island in November of that year Baynard … and most of the landowners in Hilton Head, departed.

“Federal forces are said to have used the Braddock Point mansion as quarters as late as 1864. Subsequently it was burned; some say Confederates were the arsonists.”

According to the Chicora report:

“When Hilton Head fell to Union troops on November 7, 1861 the island had been deserted by its plantation owners, who also took with them many, but not all, of their Black slaves. The estate of William Baynard claimed losses of $112,850 , including 129 slaves valued at $91,000, 150 bales of cotton valued at $15,000, 2000 bushels of corn valued at $1,600, 30,000 pounds of fodder valued at $300, 230 head of cattle valued at $2,300, one mule worth $150, five horses valued at $500, three boats valued at $700, one flat valued at $200, and the contents of the house, valued at $900 … Interestingly, there was no claim made for any structures on the plantation.”

The report continued on the history of the plantation and its buildings:

“The property was held by the federal government until August 2, 1875 when it was redeemed by the heirs of William E. Baynard. Described as the ‘Braddock Point Place, Bounded North and Northeast by Lawton Place, South east and South by Atlantic Ocean, West and North West by Calibogue Sound containing one thousand acres more or less always intending to conform to the original boundaries’ excepting ‘about forty five acres on Braddock’s Point at the South Western extremity of Hilton Head Island and on the Braddock’s Point Place … which is reserved for Light House Property’ (Beaufort County RMC DB 19, p. 441). On September 23, 1893, Elizabeth D. Ulmer [Joseph’s niece] sued Joseph S. Baynard and the other heirs for partition of the redeemed estate ~ and the case was heard by the Beaufort Circuit Count the following year. The tract was ordered to be sold by Thomas Martin, Master-in-Equity and on February 19, 1894 a deed was recorded selling the property to William P. Clyde for $4,683 (Beaufort County RMC, DB 19, p. 439).”

As for William E. Baynard, according to the Heritage Library article, he:

“moved from Edisto to become a permanent Hilton Head resident [and] is supported by the fact that he had had constructed in Zion Cemetery in 1845 a mausoleum. It is now the oldest remaining intact structure on Hilton Head.

“Baynard died in 1849, four years after the mausoleum was built, when he was 49 years of age. He was joined in the mausoleum by his widow five years later.

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“The tomb is currently empty which is credible confirmation of reports that the mausoleum has been the object of scavengers, although tales as to who and when illegal entries were made cannot now be confirmed – nor can the ghost stories associated with the mausoleum and the Baynards.”

William’s wife, Catherine, died in 1854 and was interred with her husband in the family mausoleum on Hilton Head Island (fig. 21).

The Stoney-Baynard property – now called the Stoney-Baynard Ruins – was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. Remnants of the old antebellum estate remain, including the north and east elevations of the main house, a slave house foundation and a fireplace block (figs. 22 & 23).

The description of the property on the National Register reads:

“The Stoney-Baynard Plantation, dating from the first decade of the nineteenth century, or perhaps even the last decade of the eighteenth century, represents the main settlement of a typical sea island cotton plantation. The site is significant for the contributions it has already made, and is able to make through additional archaeological research, to our understanding of main plantation complexes and their white owners. In addition, the site provides the opportunity to explore the status and life style of African American slaves associated with household domestic duties, rather than field slaves which have been more extensively studied. Taken as a whole, the complex has the ability to further refine our understanding of the use and cognitive structure of rural plantation landscapes by both black slaves and white owners. Finally, the main house ruins are the only tabby mansion built on Hilton Head Island. Standing architectural ruins associated with the plantation include portions of the main house, a chimney footing for what may be an overseer’s house, and a slave house associated with slaves working in the main house. Ruins of a fourth structure include footings for a tent, probably constructed during the Civil War by Union troops known to have been stationed at this plantation.”

Let’s return to Joseph Scott Baynard, William Eddings’ son, and the man directly connected to Cyrus Garvin.

Joseph was born on October 2, 1834, in South Carolina, where his family lived on Braddock’s Point plantation. After his father died in 1849, Joseph can be found attending an agriculture school in Germantown Township in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. He was 17 years old.

Records of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture described the school:

“In 1846, Mr. James Gowen, ever a great patron of agriculture, was desirous of establishing an agricultural school to educate young men to be practical farmers. This was accomplished in 1847 by leasing to Mr. John Wilkinson his farm at Mt Airy, Germantown, who carried on this school for some years. This Society gave Mr. Wilkinson what encouragement it could, but finally he was obliged to abandon the project.”

It’s possible that his mother enrolled him in the school as it was a year after his father’s death.

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According to his obituary, Joseph was educated at St. Timothy Hall in Catonsville, Maryland. St. Timothy’s was a military school attended by the offspring of the wealthier residents of Maryland and the Southern states, according to various sources. One of its students was John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln. According to a 2015 article in the Baltimore Sun, Booth and his younger brother attended the school from 1852 to 1853, when his views on slavery were reinforced.

While Joseph Scott Baynard was attending the agricultural school in Pennsylvania, a girl named Alice Guerard Allen was born on January 16, 1850, in Marietta, Georgia, to Reverend George Allen and Alice Screven Guerard. Her father was the son of George Allen and Mary Lucia Garvey, who, if you’ll recall, inherited the Garvey Hall Plantation, where we believe Cyrus Garvin was born and lived as a slave.

The year his mother died and five years after his father’s death, Joseph Scott Baynard, who descended from a wealthy family of plantation owners, bought property from James Stoney on March 11, 1854, in St. Luke’s Parish situated on North May River Bluff. He was 20 years old and a bachelor. The former Stoney land, however, was not where he farmed. Baynard used the land for his summer residence. The exact location of Joseph’s plantation is unknown but it is presumed to be in the location of current-day Palmetto Bluff, which comprised approximately 18 plantations at the time.

In her Master of Fine Arts in historic preservation thesis entitled “Preserving Culture by Rewriting History: Interpreting Sites in the Lowcountry Antebellum Planters’ Summer Cottage Community of Bluffton, South Carolina,” Carolyn M. Coppola discusses how plantation owners built summer houses to escape the diseases prevalent in and around their plantations.

“In the 1820s, planters from Hilton Head Island, Palmetto Bluff, and other nearby locations began building summer cottages on the banks of the May River. By 1825 the village was operating a college preparatory school called the May River Academy and several churches were erected. Several general stores operated on the main street and regular steamboat service to Savannah began in 1843 … In 1863, much of the village was burned by Union troops, but twenty-one buildings, including two churches, survived, leaving Bluffton one of the best preserved summer cottage communities in Beaufort District, if not all of Lowcountry. It remains a potential site of study today, with ten surviving antebellum structures, two of them open to the public, and the others identified on a walking tour brochure.”

She added:

“Summer cottage communities were founded as places to escape health threats. They existed throughout the Lowcountry. They were centers of plantation management, social life, academic life, and spiritual life. The houses were plain and simple and almost always whitewashed. Plantings around the houses varied, depending on the location of the community. There were parties, dances, teas, and carriage rides. House slaves resided in these communities. But there is so much that remains unknown.”

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She described the area’s attraction:

“Bluffton rises to forty feet above sea level. This was considered high in Lowcountry where most land is at or just above sea level. The elevation promoted breezes in the hot summer months, providing some relief from heat and a mechanism for minimizing the population of disease- bearing mosquitoes. Three deep coves from the May River contributed to the comfort of Bluffton inhabitants.”

Joseph Baynard used the property as so many of his countrymen did in the day – for his summer residence. His house was later destroyed by Union forces when they set fire to Bluffton in 1863, as were so many others owned by his neighbors (fig. 24).

Let’s follow Joseph Scott Baynard’s travels and activities so we can get a good idea of how Cyrus Garvin became associated with him and his family.

In the 1860 U.S. Census, Joseph was 24 years old and single. His occupation was listed as “planter” and the value of his real estate was $2,000 and his personal property was $40,000. His personal estate probably was so high because of the death of his parents. His wealthy father died in 1849 and his mother in 1854.

Additionally, the 1860 U.S. Federal Census Slave Schedules recorded that Joseph had 44 slaves – 28 males and 16 females, including 100-year-old Dinah – but none of the ages matched that of Cyrus Garvin. The 44 slaves lived in 11 quarters on the property.

While oral tradition always has believed that Cyrus Garvin was a slave on Joseph Scott Baynard’s plantation, no definitive documentation has been found to confirm the claim. We do believe, however, that Cyrus and Joseph had a close relationship – either as slave and master or employee and employer. We will shortly show how their relationship evolved.

In the meantime, Joseph was farming 500 acres of improved land, according to the U.S. Selected Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850-1880, which was enumerated on September 22, 1860. The cash value of his farm was $10,000 and the value of farming implements and machinery was $150.

As of June 1, 1860, he had five horses, three asses/mules, 12 milch cows, six working oxen, 28 other cattle and 20 sheep for a total value of $1,500.

On his plantation, he produced, during the year ending on June 1, 1860, 900 bushels of Indian corn, 30 bales of 400 pounds each of ginned cotton, 150 bushels of peas and beans, 500 bushels of sweet potatoes, 100 pounds of butter and five tons of hay. He also had $100 in value of animals slaughtered.

While not as grand as some of Joseph’s fellow planters’ sites, his farm probably produced enough to provide him with income.

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A year later, the Civil War began. On May 24, 1862, Joseph Scott Baynard enlisted in the Confederate Army as a private. He was 28 years old. Although his obituary noted that he first served with the Marion Artillery of Charleston, we could not find any definitive documentation to verify the claim. However, according to the National Park Service’s Civil War Soldiers and Sailors database, he served with Georgia’s 1st Regiment Infantry under the command Colonels Hugh W. Mercer and Charles H. Olmstead.

The National Park Service notes that the regiment organized prior to the war with militia companies from Savannah, Georgia.

“After entering Confederate service it was disciplined as both heavy artillery and infantry. The regiment served on the coast with a detachment at Savannah and another at Charleston until May, 1864. It then was assigned to General Mercer's Brigade and during the Atlanta Campaign, July 20 to September 1, reported 11 killed, 31 wounded, and 6 missing. Transferred to J.A. Smith's command it continued the fight with Hood in Tennessee and on December 21, 1864, had only 52 men present for duty. Later it saw action at Bentonville and surrendered on April 26, 1865.”

He was transferred to the Chatham Light Artillery, which was formed in Savannah during the spring of 1862. The NPS notes:

“Throughout the war it served in the Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, and saw action at Charleston, Olustee, James Island, and Waynesborough. Later it was involved in the defense of Savannah and a detachment was captured when Fort McAllister fell in December, 1864. The remaining men probably served in the campaign of the Carolinas and disbanded. Captains Joseph S. Claghorn and John F. Wheaton were in command.”

He served for three years, mustering out in February 1865. The Civil War came to an end in April 1865 and the effort to rebuild Southern states and return them to the Union began in earnest. In December of that same year, the 13th Amendment – abolishing slavery – was ratified by the states.

We lose track of Joseph until 1867 when he showed up in the U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989, for Savannah, Georgia. We believe he moved from South Carolina to Savannah, where he became a “money broker” and lived on the south side of Liberty Street, two doors east of Barnard Street.

Where was Cyrus Garvin? As we already mentioned, oral tradition believes that he was a slave on Joseph Baynard’s plantation, although no definitive proof has been found. We suspect that Cyrus also was rebuilding his life after enduring the horrors of slavery and the Civil War. We do know that he never left South Carolina.

Although the right to vote wasn’t officially afforded African Americans until 1870, black suffrage was required of Southern states to be readmitted to the Union. Cyrus Garvin’s name can be found among those on a voter registration list for Bluffton, South Carolina, in 1868.

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The Constitutional Rights Foundation website explains how Cyrus could have registered to vote before the amendment was ratified:

“Following the Civil War, Radical Republicans in Congress introduced a series of laws and constitutional amendments to try to secure civil and political rights for black people. This wing of the Republican Party was called ‘radical’ because of its strong stance on these and other issues. The right that provoked the greatest controversy, especially in the North, concerned black male suffrage: the right of the black man to vote.

“In 1867, Congress passed a law requiring the former Confederate states to include black male suffrage in their new state constitutions. Ironically, even though African American men began voting in the South after 1867, the majority of Northern states continued to deny them this basic right.

“In the North, the Republicans’ once-huge voter majority over the Democratic Party was declining. Radical Republican leaders feared that they might lose control of Congress to the Democrats.

“One solution to this problem called for including the black man’s vote in all Northern states. Republicans assumed the new black voters would vote Republican just as their brothers were doing in the South. By increasing its voters in the North and South, the Republican Party could then maintain its stronghold in Congress.

“The Republicans, however, faced an incredible dilemma. The idea of blacks voting was not popular in the North. In fact, several Northern states had recently voted against black male suffrage.

“In May 1868, the Republicans held their presidential nominating convention in Chicago and chose Ulysses S. Grant as their candidate. The Republicans agreed that African-American male suffrage continued to be a requirement for the Southern states, but decided that the Northern states should settle this issue for themselves.

“Grant was victorious in the election of 1868, but this popular general won by a surprisingly slim margin. It was clear to Republican leaders that if they were to remain in power, their party needed the votes of black men in the North.”

We’ll return to Cyrus shortly, but let’s further our discussion about Joseph Scott Baynard.

According to North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000, Joseph married Alice Guerard Allen, then 19 years old [16 years his junior], on April 13, 1869. Alice was the daughter of Reverend George Allen and Alice Screven Guerard. Reverend George, if you’ll recall, was the son of Mary Lucia Garvey Allen, whose father was Michael Garvey, the owner of the Garvey Hall Plantation where we believe Cyrus Garvin was born in 1820 and lived as a slave.

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The connection between the Baynards, the Allens and the Garveys was too great not to lead us to theorize that because Mary Lucia Garvey was Alice Allen Baynard’s grandmother, Cyrus Garvin ended up in the employ of Joseph Scott Baynard.

In the 1870 U.S. Census, Joseph, then 35, and Alice were living in Savannah with three black house servants, all of whom were born in South Carolina. Joseph was working as a stock broker and had $5,000 in real estate value and $5,000 in personal property.

Curiously, the U.S. Selected Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850-1880, does not have a record for Joseph Scott Baynard for 1870 – supporting our theory that Cyrus Garvin was running Joseph’s farm in his absence. But more on that in due time.

Meanwhile, Joseph was still living and working in Savannah. In the U.S. City Directories, 1821- 1989, we find him listed as living at 161 Liberty Street in Savannah and working in a partnership with Thomas J. McNish in T.J. McNish & Co.

Thomas Julius McNish was born around 1822 in South Carolina to John and Ann McNish. He was one of seven children. Our research shows that Thomas never married and spent the later years of his life living with two of his sisters in Savannah. The 1880 U.S. Census recorded him living next door to Joseph and Alice Baynard. The only other fact we know about Thomas McNish is that in 1884 he was charged with disorderly conduct and fined $5 as well as “fighting in the street,” for which he spent a few days in lockup, according to Savannah, Georgia, Court Records, 1790-1934.

By the time the 1880 U.S. Census was taken, Joseph and Alice Baynard’s family had grown. They now had four children – Alice, then 9; William, 6; George, 3; and Catherine Adelaide, 1 month. Although still living in Savannah, Joseph told the enumerator that his occupation was a “farmer in South Carolina.” We presume that he still worked as a broker, but also kept his farm in South Carolina for additional income and had someone – we believe Cyrus Garvin – handling the day-to-day operation. .

The Baynard family continued to live in Savannah and Joseph continued to work in the brokerage business with Thomas McNish until the Baynards moved to Guyton, a small town about 30 miles north of Savannah. We are not sure when he moved his family to Guyton, but it possibly could have been in the mid-1870s. Joseph was listed in the U.S. City Directories for 1874 as living in Savannah and was a “planter.” We presume that he no longer was a broker and that he retained his farm in South Carolina.

According to vanishingsouthgeorgia.com:

“Guyton was originally known as Whitesville, for the community that emerged around Zachariah White’s 250-acre plantation. With no heirs and deep debt, White’s estate was seized by Effingham County. When the Central of Georgia Railway laid tracks through the community around 1837, it was simply referred to as Station Number 30. Soon thereafter it was named in honor of a prominent local, Archibald Guyton.”

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In 1876, Joseph built the 16-room Baynard Hotel (fig. 25), which also served as the family residence. It now is a private home.

We’re not sure how long he owned the hotel, but he apparently also had a general mercantile store, based on an advertisement, published around 1895, for the business obtained by a family researcher on ancestry.com. The store was called “Jos. S. Baynard & Son.” (fig. 26)

In 1892, Joseph S. Baynard and others petitioned Congress, more specifically the Committee on War Claims “praying payment for cotton taken and sold by the United States.”

We also know that he served as the mayor of Guyton from October 3, 1898, to October 2, 1899, according to his obituary.

The year after his mayoral term ended and when the 1900 U.S. Census was taken, Joseph was living with his daughter, Catherine Adelaide (fig. 27), and her husband, William Ernest. Joseph was 64 years old and presumably retired as no occupation was listed for him. Curiously, however, Alice Baynard was not among the people living in her daughter and son-in-law’s house. We can only assume that the omission was an oversight by the enumerator.

On January 11, 1909, Joseph Scott Baynard died in Guyton from pneumonia, according to his obituary, at the age of 75. He is buried in the Guyton Cemetery (fig. 28). He was survived by his wife, Alice; two daughters; two sons; and two sisters.

As for Alice, she continued to live with her daughter, Catherine Adelaide, and her family (fig. 29), according to the 1910 and 1920 U.S. Censuses.

On September 12, 1928, Alice Guerard Allen Baynard died in Georgia at the age of 78. She is buried with her husband in the Guyton Cemetery (fig. 30).

It is an obvious question to ask at this point in our story – what happened to Joseph Scott Baynard’s land back in South Carolina, and more to the point, Cyrus Garvin? Let’s find out.

Cyrus Garvin – His Own Man When we last discussed Cyrus Garvin, he was a freedman with voting rights in 1868. We also know that he endured the Civil War while living in Bluffton, South Carolina, and was working on a farm, presumably the one owned by Joseph Scott Baynard.

Now our story gets more intriguing.

At some point in the mid-to-late 1850s, Cyrus Garvin married a woman named Ellie (or Ellen), who we also presume was born into slavery around 1830 and quite possibly worked on the same plantation – Garvey Hall – as her husband.

The term “marriage” for the union between Cyrus and Ellie needs historical reference.

According to an article on National Archives website:

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“Slave marriages had neither legal standing nor protection from the abuses and restrictions imposed on them by slave owners. Slave husbands and wives, without legal recourse, could be separated or sold at their master's will. Couples who resided on different plantations were allowed to visit only with the consent of their owners. Slaves often married without the benefit of clergy, and as historian John Blassingame states, ‘the marriage ceremony in most cases consisted of the slaves simply getting the master's permission and moving into a cabin together.’”

Following the Civil War and with former slaves’ newfound freedom, the Freedman’s Bureau – established as part of the Reconstruction effort – was directly involved in making the marriages legal. The National Archives article states:

“On May 30, 1865, Maj. Gen. Oliver Otis Howard, who was appointed by President Andrew Johnson as commissioner of newly formed Freedmen's Bureau, issued orders to his assistant commissioners – who were responsible for the daily operations of the bureau in the former Confederate states, Border States, and the District of Columbia – on the conditions for solemnizing former slave marriages. Continuing the practice started by military and civilian officials at government camps, Howard told his subordinates, ‘In places where the local statutes make no provisions for the marriage of persons of color, the assistant commissioners are authorized to designate officers who shall keep a record of marriages, which may be solemnized by any ordained minister of the gospel.’ Howard's orders also required ministers to report on marriages they performed, including ‘such items as may be required for registration at places designated by assistant commissioners.’ Marriages that had been already recorded by military officers were to be preserved.”

But it appears that there were more than a few obstacles. The article continues:

“From June to September 1865, both Florida and Georgia were under the jurisdiction of the Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina. In late summer 1865, the assistant commissioner for South Carolina issued an elaborate set of ‘marriage rules’ for all three states. The marriage rules outlined the duties of former slave couples and who was eligible to marry and remarry, who could grant permits and solemnize marriages, the responsibilities of husbands to former wives, and the rights of wives and children. Each state passed legislation legalizing freedmen marriages that contained basically the same provisions as the marriage rules issued by the assistant commissioner for South Carolina. There is a report of marriages and marriage licenses / certificates for Jacksonville, Florida, in the records of the Office of the Commissioner (1864– 1865) that was issued by the provost marshal for the District of Florida when the state was under martial law. Also in those records is a single marriage certificate (probably submitted as proof for a military claim) for South Carolina, and in the files of the South Carolina office of the assistant commissioner is a set of the marriage rules. There is no evidence, however, that the bureau registered or issued marriage licenses and certificates in Florida, Georgia, or South Carolina.”

Therefore, we don’t know if Cyrus and Ellie Garvin’s marriage was ever legally registered. In May 1859, while still enslaved, Cyrus and Ellie welcomed a son – Isaac – into their family. He would be their only child.

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The first time we see Cyrus as “head of household” is in the 1870 U.S. Census living in Bluffton. He was 49 years old, Ellie was 40 and Isaac was 13 and attending school. All three of them were designated as being “mulatto.” Cyrus’ listed occupation was “farmer” and he had $250 in real estate value and $375 in personal property. The enumerator noted that both Cyrus and Ellie could not read and write. But most interesting on the record was the box under “Constitutional Relations” – Cyrus was a U.S. citizen.

As we’ve already mentioned, the U.S. Selected Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850-1880, does not have a record for Joseph Scott Baynard for 1870 – supporting our theory that Cyrus Garvin was running Joseph’s farm in his absence. Remember the connection between the Baynards, the Allens and the Garveys. With Mary Lucia Garvey being Alice Allen Baynard’s grandmother, Cyrus Garvin may have ended up working for Alice’s husband, Joseph Scott Baynard.

An 1870 U.S. Selected Federal Census Non-Population Schedule does exist for Cyrus Garvin, who was listed under “name of agent, owner, or manager” of the farm. Which he was specifically, we do not know.

Enumerated on July 12, 1870, the schedule shows that Cyrus had 75 improved acres of land at a value of 500. The value of farming implements and machinery was $30. He also apparently had at least one farm worker in his employ because under the block for “total amount of wages paid during the year including value of board” he told the enumerator $100. Of course, if he was managing Joseph Baynard’s farm, that farm worker could have been Cyrus himself.

Cyrus also had one horse, one mule/ass and four swine for a total value of livestock of $255. The farm produced 80 bushels of Indian corn, 100 bushels of rice, 3.5 bales of cotton (at 450 pounds each), 25 bushels of peas and beans, 25 bushels of sweet potatoes and $35 in the value of animals slaughtered or sold for slaughter. Finally, the estimated value of all farm production, including betterments and additions to stock, was $575.

While we believe that Cyrus was managing Baynard’s farm after the Civil War and Baynard was living in Savannah, we do recognize that the size of the farm was reduced from 500 acres in 1860 to 75 acres in 1870. One can presume that the acreage decreased due to the Civil War when plantations were seized. Although former plantation owners were given the opportunity to reclaim their land, some of them were unsuccessful or only a portion was returned to them.

Nonetheless, in 1870, Cyrus Garvin was living and working as a free man, making money and building a life for himself and his family post-war.

He also built the house (fig. 31) – on the land where Joseph Scott Baynard’s one-time summer residence was situated before it was destroyed during the burning of Bluffton by Union forces on June 4, 1863.

We don’t know what led Joseph Scott Baynard to permit Cyrus to build his extended-hall and parlor-style residence, which reflects the South Carolina Lowcountry vernacular architecture typical of the Reconstruction period, on his land. The structure also bears the distinguishing

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The Journey of a Freedman’s Family November, 2016 characteristics of slave-freedman building traditions. During the post-Civil War period, it was common for freed slaves to settle upon the land of their former owners.

Perhaps the following will give us a clue as to Joseph’s thinking. A 1926 letter to Mrs. W.L. Pickard of Tifton, Georgia, from her first cousin, Richard A. Ellis, about their ancestors – the Baynards of Beaufort County, South Carolina – may shed some light on where Joseph Scott Baynard obtained his magnanimity. The letter was found on familysearch.org.

In discussing William Eddings Baynard – Joseph’s father and owner of numerous plantations and slaves – Ellis wrote:

“He was a kind master to his slaves. If any overseer was brutal in his treatment of the negroes, it meant that he was settled with and discharged. One of his idiosyncrasies was to allow them nothing but blankets and clothing and perhaps a peck of meal a week. But he only worked them half of the day and gave them garden plots to raise vegetables and allowed them to raise hogs for their meat. Of course, on a sea island like Edisto, fish, oysters and all other seafood were plentiful and they had abundant time and opportunity for procuring them.”

Maybe the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree, thus why Joseph was kind to Cyrus. Remember, Joseph was living and working in Savannah, Georgia, after the war, and we believe left Cyrus to run his farm.

Ensconced in his new house – which we believe he built himself – and making money, Cyrus turned his attention to other endeavors.

On January 31, 1878, Cyrus, acting as the agent for St. Matthew’s Baptist Church, purchased from Dr. Paul Pritchard one acre of land in Bluffton Township for $10 (Beaufort County Deed Book, 11:152). The property boundaries described in the deed state:

“…North by Charleston and Savannah Public Road East and South by lands of P. Pritchard MD, West by lands of Heyward and Guerard…”

The deed further states that the transaction was conducted:

“…by the understanding segment on the part of said Cyrus Garvin Agt [Agent] that the one acre of land is to be used exclusively for church purposes – a church to be built on the River as the St. Matthews Baptist Church with no internments of the deal to be allowed on the land in the event of the law and church being abandoned by the congregation represented by said Cyrus Garvin Agt [Agent] the same is to revert back to P. Pritchard MD…”

St. Matthew’s Church is located on Route 46 near the intersection of 170 (figs. 32 & 33). Leroy “Bubba” Chisolm said the old wooden church is encapsulated within the brick structure. More research, including talking to members like Betty Gadsden and Patricia Walls (who we encountered on a visit to the church), would need to be done to fully explore the place of worship that Cyrus helped to build.

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Paul Pritchard was born on April 10, 1820, in Charleston, South Carolina, and was a rice planter and physician. He also was one of the signers of the petition to charter the Town of Bluffton, according to the Bluffton Historical Preservation Society. In the article “Reminiscences of an Octogenarian, a Man Who Lived With Men We Read About” that he wrote for the Alkahest, the literary magazine of the south, published in September 1900, he said he attended Kinderhook Academy in New York, a boarding school. One of his classmates was Samuel Tilden, who was the 25th governor of New York and was the Democratic candidate for president in 1876. Among Tilden’s claims to fame was winning the popular vote but losing the Electoral College tally to Rutherford B. Hayes.

Pritchard also attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1836 where one of his fellow cadets was William Tecumseh Sherman, who later became a general in the Union Army during the Civil War. In the article, Pritchard remembered Sherman as:

“…a good, genial boy, with no characteristic at that time in evidence of the questionable glory he was to achieve in his desolating march through Georgia to the sea.”

After graduating from medical college in Charleston in March 1841, he “located on the Savannah river the ensuing month for the practice of my profession,” he wrote. He discussed the era from 1842 to 1861:

“…the rice culture on Savannah river was an exception in progress, product and prosperity. Large estates were cultivated … But now what a change has ‘come over the spirit of the dream,’ for while from 1841 to 1861 the rice lands on Savannah river were never in the market and private sales only now and then occurred at from $100 to $200 per acre, owing at present to the changed conditions of labor entailing imperfect culture, and the unprecedented frequency of cyclonic visitations, wrecking crops and improvements, one-half of the rice lands are uncultivated, and sales of these once opulent estates forced at values so insignificant as to prove a step from the ‘sublime to the ridiculous.’

“The rice lands on Savannah river were considered the ‘Delta,’ the garden spot of the state, the soil inexhaustible, never failing in yielding ample returns, ever being fertilized from the yellow waters of the flowing river; but, now, so changed is the aspect, contrasting the present with the past, we are almost constrained to say they are only here and there, ‘a rose left on the stalk, to tell where the garden had been.’ All of the plantations were fully settled; the rice pounding and threshing mills costing thousands of dollars being an exhibit of all the improvements, regardless of expense, that the most skillful and experienced machinist could devise, for the better marketing of the crop. During my first year's practice on the river, I found all of the overseers armed with lancets — phlebotomy being the order of the day — accompanied with a drastic emetic, cathartic dose, as a knockdown argument in the treatment and curation of the larger number of prevalent diseases. Up to my advent, no physician had preceded me in practicing exclusively on the river, so I had to confront and revolutionize this exhaustive medication for more civilized, enlightened, advanced methods.”

He continued in relaying his view of early South Carolina:

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“On the 4th of July, 1848, while at my plantation on Cheschessee river, twenty miles distant from my office, I was notified that a few cases of Asiatic cholera had occurred the previous day on Savannah river, whereupon I repaired to my post of duty and before night removed over five hundred negroes under my special sanitary care from the plantation and camped them in the pine land. All the regulations of a military encampment were rigidly enforced, and while a number of cases of cholera were presented for several ensuing weeks, still the result, under vigilant care, prompt treatment and proper regimen, was most favorable, not a single death occurring; besides the satisfaction and blessing additional, that about the latter end of August we ventured with the men to reoccupy the plantations and with a generous diet, oceans of strong coffee and a respectful portion of whiskey, a full crop of rice was harvested without the first casualty.

“How different the result in the cholera visitation to the river in 1834, when a number of the plantations were depopulated by the scourge, and the negroes — over two hundred in number, distant a mile and a half from our encampment, a dense forest intervening, their removal from the Malarial river having been delayed several days — suffered fearfully, about seventy of the number passing away quickly under this terrible pestilence. It is notable, that in the history of rice culture on the Savannah river, from 1841 to 1861, only one crop calamity occurred, caused by the terrific storm of 1854; while from 1876 to 1898 with floods, rivaling the great Yazoo freshet and cyclones, destructive alike to life and property, crop disasters have been frequent and desolating.”

In discussing Bluffton, he wrote:

“In October 1841, I for the first time visited Bluffton, S.C., then known as Kirk's Bluff, only three or four houses being there at the time. The present site of the village was covered with the dense, primitive forest. The location had always been noted for its salubrity and natural beauty and it soon became the summer resort for the planters on the adjacent sea islands as well as those residing on the mainland. From an insignificant hamlet of a few houses in 1841, Bluffton in 1861 had grown into a populous, flourishing village, its inhabitants noted for their intelligence, refinement and hospitality and fully up to the front in the agitation of the movement that led to the establishment of the Southern Confederacy.”

As for the era of the Civil War, Pritchard wrote:

“I was in command of the village when the fight at Fort Walker on the Hilton Head Island occurred and remember the doubt and surprise of Gen. [Roswell] Ripley when I reported to him that the fort had been abandoned and the troops were evacuating the island. The General had visited the fort during the morning of the fight and found the battle progressing satisfactorily, but after he left, the fleet succeeded in taking up an enfilading position, knocking the guns to pieces in short order and rendering the work untenable. The village was crowded at the time, and the consternation at this unexpected, startling event was almost amusing, while a stampede that night and the next day, with homes, furniture and belongings all abandoned, completed the catastrophe.

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“In the progress of the war Bluffton was raided by an expedition from ‘Hilton Head,’ the torch applied and a third of the houses sent up in smoke. Since the war the village has been slowly but surely improving and is regarded, owing to its natural advantages, inclusive of its unrivaled salt water bathing facilities, as one of the most desirable and pleasant summer retreats on the Carolina coast. After the fall of Fort Walker, Bluffton was honored by a visit from General [Robert E.] Lee, who was then engaged in organizing the defense of the Carolina coast. I have now in my possession a gift from him, the spy glass with which at Fort Point he inspected the Federal fleet anchored off Bay Point. Spending the evening with him at headquarters, I was impressed with his wonderful equanimity in the discussion of the critical, exciting condition of affairs, and when, the next day, we received our cavalry, he appeared to us as the embodiment of splendid manhood — the chivalrous, peerless patriot and hero. To me, it has been ever esteemed a benediction to have met and known the Washington of the Southern confederacy. But the ‘dead past has now buried its dead,’ and the sunlight of peace and brotherhood has stilled the turbulent waves of strife and contention with the sisterhood of states one as the ocean, both North and Southland cherishing the memory of Grant and Lee as their pre-eminent ‘ideals’ in heroism and patriotism.”

Dr. Pritchard’s house, which he built for his wife, Martha Catherine Kirk, was among those that were burned during the raid on Bluffton, according to the Bluffton Historical Preservation Society. His family was longtime plantation owners in South Carolina and Pritchardville is named after them. His plantation home (fig. 34), we believe, was eventually torn down. Pritchardville is an unincorporated community between Hardeeville and Bluffton.

Dr. Paul Pritchard died on April 6, 1905, in Pritchardville, according to Find A Grave, and is buried in the Maye River Baptist Church Cemetery in Bluffton.

Back to Cyrus.

On May 10, 1878, three months after the deal with Dr. Pritchard, Cyrus purchased 54 acres from the estate of plantation owner Esther Box in Bluffton Township for $239.70 (BCDB,12:39-40). The property, according to the deed, was:

“bounded North by May River, East by land of Est[estate] of Hortsleve, South by public road and West by lands of Alfred Ferguson.”

Born in 1806, Esther Solomons, a native of South Carolina, was married to a man named Richard Box and they had at least nine children, two of whom – Horace and Caleb – sold the 54 acres of land after their mother died in 1865.

In the 1860 U.S. Census, we see that Esther was living in Bluffton with three of her grown children – Ellen, 33; Mary, 31; and Caleb, 27 – and owned 11 slaves. Her occupation was listed as planter and she had $5,000 in real estate value and $15,000 in personal property. Living next door to her was her son, Horace, and his family. Horace, 35, was listed as being a planter with $7,000 in real estate value and $13,000 in personal property.

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Two lots on the other side of Esther’s property were designated as being “unoccupied” in the 1860 U.S. Census. Is it possible one of these could have been Garvey Hall Plantation? We can only speculate. But, interestingly, the property next to those was occupied by John S. Brabham and his family. Brabham’s occupation was designated as “overseer” and he had $1,000 in real estate value and $5,500 in personal property. We’ll leave you to ponder just whose plantation he oversaw, but will mention an intriguing fact – John Brabham’s name appears in land deeds for Garvey Hall Plantation.

By the time the 1870 U.S. Census was taken, Esther had died; we do not know when her husband predeceased her. We believe they are buried in the Box Family Cemetery in Estill, South Carolina.

In the census, we see that her son, Caleb, was living in Bluffton with his young family and was a planter. But most noteworthy about this census record is the name of a neighboring family – Joshua Chaney and his wife, Molly, and their two children, Lillie, 14, and Janie, 15. Janie Chaney will factor into the journey of the Cyrus Garvin family.

As for Horace, he served in the Civil War with Capt. M.J. Kirk’s Company, called the May River Troop; Martin’s Mounted Regiment; and the South Carolina Volunteers, which was also known as the 1st Regiment South Carolina Mounted Militia. He enlisted on November 2, 1861 – seven months after the war began – and mustered in and out as a second lieutenant. He died in 1900. We are uncertain when Caleb died.

Cyrus held onto the former Box property for seven years until he sold it on October 31, 1885, to John Holbrook Estill (fig. 35), the owner of the Morning Daily News in Savannah, Georgia (BCDB, 14:550-551).

John Holbrook Estill was born on October 28, 1840, in Charleston, South Carolina, to William Estill, a bookbinder and printer, according to an article about him on savannahga.gov.

“One of eleven children, he was named for John Edwards Holbrook, naturalist, medical professor, and friend of Estill’s father. In 1851, the Estill family moved to Savannah, and at the age of eleven, he began working in the office of the Evening Journal. In 1856, Estill returned to Charleston where he apprenticed for three years in the printing house of Walker, Evans & Coggsville.”

He was a military veteran.

“In 1859, he joined the Oglethorpe Light Infantry and was stationed at Fort Pulaski in January 1861. After the Oglethorpe Light Infantry became Company B, 8th Regiment, Georgia Volunteer Infantry, Confederate States of America, he was sent to Virginia where he was severely wounded in the First Battle of Manassas.”

The First Battle of Manassas, also known as Bull Run, was fought on July 21, 1861, and was the first major battle of the Civil War. According to civilwar.org:

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“The goal was to make quick work of the bulk of the Confederate army, open the way to Richmond, the Confederate capital, and end the war.”

The battle raged for a day.

“Although victorious, Confederate forces were too disorganized to pursue. By July 22, the shattered Union army reached the safety of Washington. The Battle of Bull Run convinced the Lincoln administration and the North that the Civil War would be a long and costly affair.”

Estill was discharged in 1862 due to his injuries and returned to Savannah, according to savannahga.org.

“Following the Civil War, he maintained an active role in the local militias, including with Company F, 1st Regiment, Georgia Infantry, the Oglethorpe Light Infantry, the Georgia Hussars, the Georgia Cadets, and the Savannah Volunteer Guards. He was retired in 1895 with the rank of lieutenant colonel, from which his affectionate title of ‘Colonel’ originated. Upon returning to Savannah from Manassas, he became a pressman for the Savannah News and Herald, established ‘Estill’s News Deport,’ and a job printing office. In 1866, he purchased a small printing plant and left the News and Herald, only to return in June 1867 when he purchased one-half interest in the newspaper. In June 1868, he acquired the remaining half. Renamed the Savannah Morning News, Estill owned the paper for forty years (1867-1907). Estill erected the first Morning News building on Bay Street in 1876. For twenty years, he served as president of the Georgia Press Association. Estill was highly thought of in the newspaper world, as evidenced by the Rome Commercial’s description of him in 1871 as ‘accomplished, energetic and talented; he has built up the best newspaper in the state, if not in the south…’”

He was deeply involved in his Savannah community, having served on numerous business, civic and government organizations, and ran unsuccessfully for governor of Georgia in 1902.

“Many sites bear the name of John Holbrook Estill in honor of the contributions he made to Savannah and surrounding communities.”

He also played a key role in the purchase of Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah.

“Following its incorporation in 1868, J. H. Estill became an early stockholder in the Evergreen Cemetery Company, which owned Bonaventure Cemetery. In 1873, he joined the Board of Managers (also referred to as the Board of Directors). He became vice president of this body in 1879, and president in 1880. As president of the Board of Managers he marketed the cemetery to Savannah’s City Council in both 1883 and 1898 in hopes that the City would acquire the property as an additional municipal cemetery. Finally in July 1907, Estill oversaw the sale of the cemetery property to the City of Savannah.”

He died on November 9, 1907, at his residence on the Isle of Hope. He is buried in the “Estill Triangle” in Bonaventure Cemetery.

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“A large granite obelisk, one of the tallest monuments in the cemetery, marks his family plot. The remains of his father, William Estill VI, first two wives, Marion Virginia Thompson and Ida Holbrook, and three of his children, William ‘Willie’ Nicholson Estill, Eugene Marion Estill, and Helen ‘Nellie’ Marion Estill can also be found in the Estill Triangle.”

According to a 2001 article in Island Packet entitled “Old plantations, families of Palmetto Bluff,” Estill was a large landowner. Palmetto Bluff “at one time was composed of some 18 former plantations and smaller tracts of land.” One of those plantations had been owned by the Box family.

“The above plantations and tracts of land, comprising more than 18,000 acres, were acquired by John Holbrook Estill in the 1880s and 1890s, a time when the general area was hard-hit by economic recessions and natural disasters. In 1902, Estill conveyed to Col. Richard T. Wilson all land in Beaufort purchased by Estill, except Jones Island, and land conveyed by Estill to the Beaufort Land and Investment Company.”

Today, this area, comprising the acreage of the former plantations, is known as Palmetto Bluff.

But Cyrus Garvin wasn’t done yet wheeling and dealing in 1878. On November 12, 1878, he deeded for $1 the property he had purchased from Dr. Paul Pritchard in January as well as the completed edifice to the St. Matthew’s Baptist Church trustees – of which Cyrus was one (BCDB, 12:31-32). In addition to the completion of the church and the transferal of the property was an important correction Cyrus made to his name: (fig. 36)

“…said land was conveyed to me on the 31st day of February [January] AD 1878 by Paul Pritchard in a certain deed of that date wherein my name is made Cyrus Garvin Agt [Agent] I said Cyrus Garvey being the part so called therein and my agency being that of acting Trustee of the St. Matthews Baptist Church as foresaid. Now therefore I Cyrus Garvey Agent as aforesaid do hereby convey to the said Trustees as aforesaid all the aforesaid land to have and to hold the claim unto themselves and their successors in office duly appointed by the Auctions of St. Matthews Baptist Church forever.”

And there it is: Our evidence – with the help of Cyrus himself – to show that he most probably was born at the Garvey Hall Plantation and later was a slave of George and William Gaston Allen, who inherited the plantation when their mother, Mary Lucia Garvey Allen, died on September 13, 1856. If you’ll recall, she inherited the plantation from her uncle, James Garvey, when he died. Records state that James’ wife predeceased him and there were no children, making Mary Lucia Garvey Allen his only living heir.

Just a bit of explanation about some African-American surnames – Henry Louis Gates Jr., the Alphonse Fletcher University professor and director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University, wrote in the article “Lost Slave Ancestors Found” on theroot.com, of which he serves as chairman:

“With the abolition of slavery, many black people had the opportunity to start their life anew and choose their own surname. While it is true that some adopted the name of their former owners,

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The Journey of a Freedman’s Family November, 2016 this was not always the case. For example, some chose surnames based on their occupation, while others used names of prominent local and national figures. Other surnames were based on family members’ given names, or even the name of a nearby town or place.”

Gates, who also is the host of the PBS’ show “Finding Your Roots,” added: “In our experience tracing the ancestry of the guests in Finding Your Roots, almost all of the African-American ancestors took the surnames of their owners during slavery.”

In 1880, Cyrus Garvey – as he will be known for the remainder of this narrative – was farming the 54 acres he purchased from the estate of Esther Box in 1878. The Selected U.S. Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850-1880, for 1880 – enumerated on June 19 – shows that Cyrus, designated as “owner,” was faring well as a farmer.

He had 35 acres of tilled land and 19 acres of woodland and forest for a total value, including land, fences and buildings, of $300. The value of the livestock was $130. And he spent $10 on building and repairing fences in 1879. The estimated value of all farm productions (sold, consumed, or on hand) for 1879 was $378.

Additionally, he had two mules/asses, one milch cow, one other cattle, one dropped calf [meaning it was born that year], one pregnant cow, two swine and 20 chickens (inclusive of spring hatching). He reported that 60 dozen eggs were produced in 1879.

His farm produced 200 bushels of Indian corn on 20 acres of land, 10 bushels of oats on one acre, one bale of cotton on eight acres, eight bushels of cow peas and 70 acres of sweet potatoes on two-and-a-half acres.

When the agricultural inventory is viewed, one has to wonder how one man was managing all of it while, as we believe, still handling the day-to-day operation of Joseph Baynard’s farm in his absence. Of course, he had the help of his son, Isaac, who was 21 years old in 1880, and his wife, Ellie, no stranger to working hard having lived her early life as a slave.

Nonetheless, Cyrus obviously was determined and he persevered. Keep in mind, too, that Cyrus could not read and write, but those were no obstacles for a man resolute in making the most of his liberty, free from the shackles of slavery. And Cyrus wasn’t alone. When we look at the 1880 U.S. Census, all of his neighbors were black farmers.

His successes also were achieved during the Jim Crow era of racial segregation that started in the late 1880s and continued until the mid-1960s. For an explanation, let’s turn to South Carolina’s Information Highway:

“After the Civil War, white Southerners moved quickly to eliminate black people's newfound freedom. They wanted to return blacks, in effect, to their prewar status as slaves. In order to do this ‘legally,’ they passed new laws that appeared, on the surface, to be neutral and fair to all races. In actuality however, these laws were actually designed specifically to repress black people.

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“At first these laws were called Black Codes, but because of their deceptive nature, they eventually came to be known as the laws of Jim Crow. Jim Crow was the name of a character in a minstrel show. Minstrel shows were popular during that time, and they featured white actors in ‘black face,’ or black make-up. Because of this, the name Jim Crow represented the fact that Black Codes were based on racial disguise.

“South Carolina began to establish Black Codes immediately. The Constitution of 1865, passed only a few months after the Civil War ended, failed to grant African-Americans the right to vote. It also retained racial qualifications for the legislature. Consequently, black people had no power to combat the unfair laws. Some of the Black Codes that were passed around this time stated:

• “No person of color shall migrate into and reside in this state, unless, within twenty days after his arrival within the same, he shall enter into a bond with two freeholders as sureties”

• “Servants shall not be absent from the premises without the permission of the master”

• “Servants must assist their masters ‘in the defense of his own person, family, premises, or property’”

• “No person of color could become an artisan, mechanic, or shopkeeper unless he obtained a license from the judge of the district court – a license that could cost $100 or more.”

But 1880 was a joyous time for the Garvey family. Cyrus’ grandson Paul was born on November 23. Paul was the son of Isaac and his wife, Jennie [Jane] Chaney. If you’ll recall, Jennie Chaney and her family lived next door to Caleb Box, one of the heirs of Esther Box, who sold the 54 acres to Cyrus in 1878.

Although Cyrus sold the 54 acres to John Holbrook Estill on October 31, 1885, he wasn’t done buying property – and the next one is crucial to our story of the Garvin House.

On June 24, 1890, Cyrus Garvey purchased for $450 the property owned by Joseph Scott Baynard and on which sat Cyrus’ house (BCDB, 17:148-149). The deed, which was erroneously indexed under the name “Cyrus Garney,” in the Beaufort County Registrar of Deeds index book reads, in part:

“…unto said Garvey and his heirs and assigns forever all that farm and tract of land situated lying and being in the State of South Carolina, Beaufort District and in the Parish of St. Luke’s and situated on North May River Bluff butting bounding and measuring in the manner following to wit: to the East on street separating it from lands now or lately belonging to Dr. S.P. Pope known as North Street, the West on lands now or lately of Rev James Shaney, to the North and rear on street separating it from lands now or lately belonging to [illegible] and measuring one hundred and sixty five (165) feet more or less and to the south by the River May … and measuring one hundred and thirty (130) feet more or less being the same land which James

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Stoney conveyed to said Joseph S. Baynard by his deed bearing the date March 11, 1854, together with all and singular the houses, out-houses, edifices, buildings, stables, yards, gardens…”

With this transaction, Cyrus Garvey owned the land surrounding the house he built in 1870 – right where Joseph Scott Baynard allowed him to do so.

A curious thing happened in 1890-91. If we look at the map of Bluffton for 1891 (fig. 37), we see the location of Cyrus’ house facing the May River and at the corner of Water Street. On both sides of his land were properties owned by James Douglas Robertson. Why would that fact be interesting?

First, some background on James Douglas Robertson (fig. 38) – he was born on May 2, 1832, in Scotland and arrived in America in September 1849. He became a naturalized citizen in 1856, and was educated at the Union Theological Seminary in New York, graduating in 1861.

In a February 1885 letter he wrote to the seminary he explained his accomplishments since graduation. He said he also was educated in Edinburgh. He was licensed by the presbytery of Newark, New Jersey, then led the Second Congregational Church in Danbury, Connecticut, from 1861 to 1865, and a Presbyterian church in Amenia, New York, from 1865 to 1866. He then was appointed U.S. Consul and was stationed in Valenica, Spain, from 1867 to 1888. Upon his return to America, he became a missionary to freedmen in Bluffton, South Carolina, from 1868 to 1885.

While in South Carolina, he became a school commissioner for Beaufort County and served from 1870 to 1872. He was a member of the South Carolina legislature and chairman of the Commission on Education from1872 to 1876.

From 1876 to 1884, he was the principal of the Bluffton Institute. According to the Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, 1878:

“This Institution is located at Bluffton, Beaufort County, South Carolina. It is a new centre for church and school work combined. It was opened on the 18th of March last, and now reports 67 scholars.

“Mr. Robertson says of the field: ‘Here are over 30,000 colored people covering an area of over 2,400 square miles, and not a Presbyterian church established. In the county there are now 130 schools; and over 1000 families have homes and farms, varying from one-half acre to 300 acres. Most of these homes are held in fee and paid for.’

“With Bluffton as a centre, Mr. Robertson names seven outposts or stations for primary schools' and aggressive church work combined; at most, if not all of which, some colored Presbyterian element is found. He also names two other points in the same county, as centres for a like work, and with each seven outlying stations to be connected — each station ten miles from the centre and nearly as far from each other.”

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He lived in Ithaca, New York; Austin and Galeston, Pennsylvania; Grand Island and Millville, New York; and Chicago, Illinois.

While he was a member of the South Carolina legislature, he was one of seven representatives from Beaufort County and was expelled from the House on February 25, 1876, for attempting to bribe publishing houses in New York concerning a supply of textbooks while a member of the Commission on Textbooks.

On July 20, 1869, he married Anna Richardson Guerard (fig. 39). Robertson was her second husband. Anna, born on January 8, 1838, was the daughter of Jacob DeVeaux Guerard and Alice Pendarvis Screven. Here’s where this tale gets more interesting:

If you’ll recall, Anna Richardson and Alice Screven were sisters. Alice married Reverend George Allen, who, with his brother William Gaston Allen, owned and operated the Garvey Hall Plantation, where we believe Cyrus Garvey was born into slavery and lived as a slave.

There’s more.

According to various sources, James Douglas Robertson bought the Garvey Hall Plantation (fig. 40) on January 1, 1873, from John Jenkins for $7,000. James Douglas Robertson then deeded the property to his wife Anna. In March 1875, Anna sold the plantation to William N. Heyward, William P. Guerard and George H. Guerard for $500 with the provision that they pay off the $7,000 mortgage left on the property. The trio failed to pay off the debt, although they held onto the property for nearly a decade. In 1882, the plantation was sold at auction to H.M. Comer & Company, which then sold to Dr. Paul Pritchard, who conveyed the property to W.R. Pritchard Jr. and L.T. Pritchard [Dr. Pritchard’s grandsons].

And there’s still more.

The connection between all of these individuals and Cyrus Garvey becomes stronger when we are reminded that Alice Guerard, the daughter of Reverend George Allen and Alice Screven, was married to Joseph Scott Baynard. And, remember, Alice Guerard Allen Baynard’s grandmother was Mary Lucia Garvey Allen, who inherited the Garvey Hall Plantation.

Twenty-five years after he was emancipated, Cyrus Garvey didn’t seem to be able to escape any memory of his early life on the Garvey Hall Plantation with a former owner of the property, James Douglas Robertson, having land on either side of his house in 1891. James Douglas Robertson died on October 26, 1914, in Bluffton at the age of 83.

By purchasing Joseph Scott Baynard’s property in 1890, Cyrus, in some ways, had downsized. He sold the 54 acres on which he farmed and deeded the one-acre of land he bought from Dr. Pritchard to the trustees of St. Matthew’s Baptist Church and now only owned the land on which his house sat.

Or so we thought.

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On July 6, 1891, Cyrus bought waterfront property from the State of South Carolina for $3.50. The deed reads, in part:

“a plantation or tract of vacant land, situate in or at the village of Bluffton containing ½ acre, being lot number (7) of a tract or parcel of vacant land, sand or mud beach, lying between high and low water mark on the May River, reserving nevertheless to the State of South Carolina all mineral and phosphate rights of said state of South Carolina to the exclusive use, control, and ownership of all the minerals and phosphate deposits on the premises hereby being granted.” With this purchase, Cyrus’ land was contiguous with the May River.

The deed was signed by Governor Benjamin Tillman (fig. 41), who led the state from 1890 to 1894 and was a U.S. senator from 1895 until his death in 1918. His tenure of governor, however, also was known for something else – lynchings. During his first term in office, there were five lynchings and 13 in his second term. He also was known for his “virulent oratory” against African Americans.

Tillman – also referred to as “Pitchfork Ben” – was a wealthy landowner who had become dissatisfied with the Democratic Party, leading a movement of white farmers calling for reform. South Carolina’s Information Highway, sciway.net, states:

“Ben Tillman was an unabashed and self-proclaimed ‘white supremacist’ who led South Carolina's notorious Red Shirts, a paramilitary gang that murdered black people on small and large scales. Before his election, he participated in the Hamburg Massacre, using his role in the riot to vault his political career. About the massacre, in which six innocent African-Americans were killed, he stated, ‘The leading white men of Edgefield [decided] to seize the first opportunity that the Negroes might offer them to provoke a riot and teach the Negroes a lesson.’ Tillman further described the massacre as an opportunity for ‘the whites [to] demonstrate their superiority by killing as many of them as was justifiable.’

“Interestingly, while Tillman claimed to champion the rights of small farmers, he did very little to help them once he attained office. He did establish Clemson University for the study of agriculture, but other than that, he largely abandoned those who had voted for him.”

The fact that he signed the deed conveying South Carolina land to former slave Cyrus Garvey takes on considerable significance.

By 1890, Cyrus was 70 years old. Since the 1890 U.S. Census was destroyed in a fire in Washington, D.C., we don’t have that avenue to tell us more about his and Ellie’s activities. We do know that he was treated for a leg ailment by Dr. Joseph Hinson Mellichamp (fig. 42) on October 21, 1890, according to the Bluffton Physicians Book.

According to A Cyclopedia of American Medical Biography:

“Joseph Hinson Mellichamp, physician and botanist, was born in St. Luke's Parish [Bluffton], South Carolina, May 9, 1829. His father, preceptor of Beaufort College, later rector of St. James

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Church, on James Island, Charleston County, South Carolina, was a lover of nature, and was a strong factor in influencing the son's tastes.

“The younger Mellichamp graduated at South Carolina College in 1849 and received an M. D. from the Medical College of the State of South Carolina in 1852. He studied in Dublin and Paris and returned to settle as a physician in Bluffton, South Carolina. His practice was chiefly among the planters and their dependents, but in the midst of his busy life he found time for botanical research and collecting, and specimens of the rarer species…”

He also was a surgeon in the Confederate Army during the Civil War.

W.C. Coker wrote in an article in Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society, Volume 27, published in 1911, about Dr. Mellichamp:

“The life that Dr. Mellichamp led was as simple and beautiful as a child's. Though I never saw him I know so well [the] type to which he belonged — without ever a selfish thought or hope of fame he opened his mind to the inexhaustible inspirations of nature and transmuted them into a faith and love that warmed the hearts of all who knew him. He was one of those who gave the old South its real distinction, a distinction that rested not so much upon the material as upon the spiritual evidences of life.”

As for his interest in botany, Coker included the sentiments of W.H. Canby, who knew Dr. Mellichamp personally:

“Notwithstanding the diligence required to fulfil the responsibilities of a large practice among the planters and their dependents, he found time for much botanical research and collecting. In the interesting floral region around him were many of the rarer species described by Walter, Michaux, and Elliott. Specimens of these were much prized by the botanical fraternity and, through his correspondents, were largely and freely distributed and are now valued samples in many of the best herbaria.”

Other than having an “ardent love of nature, with a poetic and artistic spirit,” Dr. Mellichamp’s friend said:

“But best of all, he was a man to be loved for his qualities of heart and mind. A magnetic and attractive man, his friends and correspondents cannot forget his ready kindness and words of cheer and will cherish his memory. He was beloved by the poor people of his district who, in a touching way, mourned the loss of their ‘old doctor’ as his body was borne to the grave. As might have been supposed he was intensely southern in his feelings and in his love for his native State. He now rests in her bosom, and the well-known lines, slightly altered, may well be applied to him, ‘Little he'll reck if they let him sleep on in the grave where a southern has laid him.’”

He died of heart disease at James Island, October 2, 1903, at the age of 74, according to the death certificate (fig. 43). He is buried in Saint Luke’s United Methodist Church Cemetery in Bluffton (fig. 44).

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His obituary (fig. 45) reads:

“The death of Dr. Joseph H. Mellichamp of Bluffton, which occurred at Stiles Point, James Island, October 2, 1903, removes one whose friends were legion. A member of a family distinguished in the colonial and revolutionary history of South Carolina, he was a worthy son of worthy sires. As a physician, he stood in the front rank of the profession, and was beloved by those upon whom he exercised his skill. He was one of the old-time gentlemen, a stock that is fast passing away.”

In Bluffton, Dr. Mellichamp Drive is named after the community’s beloved physician.

We lose track of Cyrus and Ellie Garvey after he was treated by Dr. Mellichamp and bought the waterfront property. We believe that they both died sometime between 1890-91 and 1900, as they do not appear on the 1900 U.S. Census. And where they are buried remains a mystery.

Isaac Garvin – The Heir Apparent While his father corrected his name from Cyrus Garvin to Cyrus Garvey in 1878, it appears that his son, Isaac, continued to go by the surname Garvin.

Cyrus and Ellie’s only child, Isaac was born in May 1859, presumably on the plantation where his parents were slaves. He married Jane “Jennie” Chaney around 1880, the year their son, Paul, also was born. By 1880, Cyrus Garvey was a productive and successful freedman of Bluffton, South Carolina.

Jennie was born in South Carolina in January 1860 – the year before the Civil War started –to Joshua W. Chaney and Mary “Molly” Kinlaw. If you’ll recall, in 1870, the Chaney family was living next door to Caleb Box, one of the heirs of the estate of Esther Box who sold 54 acres to Cyrus Garvey.

Joshua Chaney, who was born around 1830 in South Carolina, was a farmer. But from the U.S. Selected Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850-1880, we see that his farm was small. He told the enumerator he had seven acres of improved land that had a value of $70. He had one milch cow and one swine for a total value of livestock of $25. His farm produced 30 bushels of Indian corn, less than one bale of cotton, 10 bushels of peas and beans and 25 bushels of sweet potatoes. He also had $5 in value of animals slaughtered or sold for slaughter and $85 in estimated value of all farm production, including betterments and addition to stock.

It would appear from the agricultural inventory that his farm probably provided sustenance for his family more than being a money-making operation.

We do not know when Joshua died, but it was prior to 1900 when the U.S. Census was taken for that decade. In the census record, his wife, Molly, is noted as being a widow but working as a “wash woman.” Living with her was Jennie Kinlaw, 15, who worked as a servant. We also learn from the 1900 U.S. Census that Jennie’s sister, Lillie, who was born around 1856, died prior to the census being taken as Molly told the enumerator that she had given birth to two children and only one of them was alive.

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Molly died on December 6, 1906, in Bluffton and is buried in Rephraim Cemetery, which now is located within the gates of Palmetto Bluff (fig. 46).

Isaac inherited the Garvin House after his parents’ death and he and his wife continued to live there throughout their lives.

The 1900 U.S. Census tells us that Isaac, 41, and Jennie, 40, were living in Bluffton and worked on their own farm. They had two children – Cyrus (Paul Cyrus), 19, and Annie Brown, 6, their adopted daughter. Paul was working as a farm laborer. Their next-door neighbor was Charles Pritchard, the son of Dr. Paul Pritchard, with whom Cyrus Garvey did business.

As for Annie Brown, she was born in November 1893 in South Carolina. But beyond that, we haven’t been successful yet in discovering more about her or how she came to be adopted by the Garvins.

The Garvin family of Bluffton was not only working hard, but they were active members of society, as evidenced by a news article in the Savannah Tribune (fig. 47), an African-American newspaper.

Case in point: A flinch party. According to an article by Dr. Mary Socci, a South Carolina archaeologist in Palmetto Bluff, about the Garvin House, a flinch party was a favorite party game on summer nights in August and included dancing and refreshments.

The August 19, 1905, article in the Savannah Tribune reported under the headline “Bluffton Social”:

“Quite a delightful flinch party was given in honor of Mrs. L.A. Spring and the Misses Spring at the home of Mrs. Isaac Garvin ‘on the bluff’… Dainty refreshments were served and dancing indulged in until a late hour.”

The invited guests, aside from the honorees (who were staying with the Garvins), totaled 18, including the Garvins’ son Paul and his wife, Amelia. The Springs – Lucy Ann, who was the wife of Henry Hamilton Spring, and her daughters, Luella and Adie – apparently were returning from three weeks of “pleasure in Charleston” and were “rusticating at Bluffton.”

Although more research would need to be done, we believe that the Garvins and the Springs were related. In addition to throwing them a party in 1905 at which they were the guests of honor, our suspicions were heightened when we learned that Lucy and Henry Spring followed Paul and Amelia to New York City and that they are all buried in the same cemetery, Mount Olivet in Maspeth, New York.

We find later that Jennie was active in an organization called “Home Protective Club,” according to an article in the Seaside News in Bluffton, and left town to attend the monthly meeting in 1915.

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The year after the flinch party, Isaac and Jennie’s grandson, Oliver, was born on May 13, 1906. He was the son of Paul and Amelia. More on Paul and Amelia in the next chapter.

According to the 1910 U.S. Census, Isaac and Jennie were living on Wharf Street in Bluffton in the Garvin homestead left to him by his father. Isaac was still working on the general farm that he owned and Jennie was a laundress. Annie, the Garvins’ adopted daughter, was not listed. So where was Annie? More investigation would need to be done to determine her whereabouts.

On February 16, 1914, Isaac deeded the waterfront property (BCDB, 33:310), which his father bought from the State of South Carolina in 1891, and the family home to his son, Paul Cyrus Garvin (BCDB, 33:311). But Isaac and Jennie continued to live there until their deaths.

In their mid-50s, Isaac and Jennie were empty-nesters in 1920, when that decade’s U.S. Census was taken, but they had taken in a boarder, Lydia Jones, 36. Isaac apparently gave up farming as the census record notes that he was working as a laborer for A-Freight. Jennie had no occupation at the time. As for Lydia, she was a laborer in the oyster factory. By 1918, Paul and Amelia no longer lived in Bluffton and had moved north to New York City.

Oysters were abundant in the waters of the South Carolina Lowcountry, employing thousands of people (fig. 48). There were cannery and shucking operations throughout. In the report South Carolina Oyster Industry: A History, Victor G. Burrell Jr. wrote:

“The greatest years for the canneries were between the 1900s and 1930s. At least 3,500 people were employed in the canning industry in the 1920s … Oysters were steamed by at least 25 factories at one time or another in 17 locations … All canneries were located on the waterfront, making it easy to unload oysters for processing and to load empty shell for planting.”

Bluffton, he reported, had three canneries.

In the 1930 U.S. Census, Isaac and Jennie were living alone in the family homestead in Bluffton and apparently were retired or unemployed. The census record notes that the value of the home was $2,000.

Six years later, Isaac died on June 23, 1936, in Bluffton at the age of 76 from dropsy, which now is labeled edema, a condition of excess water build-up in the body’s tissues. On Isaac’s death certificate, his surname was recorded as “Garvey” – as well as that of his parents and his son, Paul, who was the informant (fig. 49).

When we take a look at Isaac’s death certificate, we see that even though Isaac and Paul used the surname “Garvin” throughout their lives, it is the name “Garvey” that was recorded on the legal document. While it appears that Paul recognized that Garvey was the name chosen by his grandfather, Cyrus, we have to wonder why he and his father, Isaac, decided to take the name Garvin. Is it possible that both Isaac and Paul wanted no connection to the former days of slavery, in particular to the Garvey Hall Plantation? We’ll never know for sure.

In his will dated March 5, 1936, Isaac instructed:

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“Now my son Paul Cyrus Garvin is to take care of me until I die, also to take care of his mother, my wife Janie Garvin. Provide, shield, protect her to the best of his ability. The said Janie Garvin my lawful wife must not be molested nor disturbed.”

He left half of his estate to Jennie for her lifetime, and at her death, Paul would become sole owner of:

“the Cyrus Garvin Estate, situated and lying in the State of South Carolina, County of Beaufort, township of Bluffton, as by Deed and Title, which I have in my custody, and recorded in the Beaufort County Courthouse.”

Isaac is buried in the Bluffton Cemetery but his gravestone could not be located..

Following Isaac’s death, Jennie continued to live in the Garvin House. In the 1940 U.S. Census, we see Jennie, 75, living with a boarder, 28-year-old Carrie Freeman, who was born in South Carolina and worked as a cook in a restaurant. Jennie was receiving government aid. We also learn from the 1940 U.S. Census that Jennie had a fourth-grade education, which is interesting considering previous census records noted that she could not read and write.

In an interview with Ruth Brown, an octogenarian and Bluffton resident, she said Jennie was legally blind and her grandmother, Albertha Chisolm Brown, would go down to the Garvin House and help her. She remembered being in the house as a young girl but never went upstairs. She said she couldn’t recall when “cousin” Jennie went blind, but that she always knew her to be sightless.

Fourteen years later, on October 20, 1854, Jennie died in Bluffton at the age of 92 from a cerebral hemorrhage. Her death certificate, for which her son, Paul, was the informant, recorded her name as Jannie Garvin (fig. 50), whose parents were Joshua Chaney and Molly Kinlaw. The certificate incorrectly recorded her age at death as 77.

She is buried in “Wriefen Cemetery,” as it is on her death certificate, in Bluffton (fig. 51), where her mother, Molly, also is interred. In actuality, the cemetery is called Rephraim and it is located on Rephraim Cemetery Road.

Paul Cyrus Garvin – The Last Man Standing When Paul Cyrus Garvin (fig. 52) became the sole owner of the family homestead in Bluffton after his parents’ deaths – his father, Isaac, in 1936 and his mother, Jennie, in 1954 – he already had been living in New York City for at least 36 years.

The U.S. World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, recorded on September 12, 1918, that he was living at 208 West 141st Street in New York City and was working in the shipping department of Evans Engineering Corp. in New Jersey. Evans was an artillery shell loading plant that operated during World War I in Old Bridge (now East Brunswick) in Middlesex County, New Jersey.

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Paul; his wife, Amelia; and their son, Oliver, left South Carolina for the North as part of the black migration from the Southern states.

According to blackpast.org, an online reference guide to African-American history:

“The Great Migration was the mass movement of about five million southern blacks to the north and west between 1915 and 1960. During the initial wave the majority of migrants moved to major northern cities such as Chicago, Illinois, Detroit, Michigan, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and New York, New York. By World War II the migrants continued to move North but many of them headed west to Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco, California, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington.

“The first large movement of blacks occurred during World War I, when 454,000 black southerners moved north. In the 1920s, another 800,000 blacks left the south, followed by 398,000 blacks in the 1930s. Between 1940 and 1960 over 3,348,000 blacks left the south for northern and western cities.

“The economic motivations for migration were a combination of the desire to escape oppressive economic conditions in the south and the promise of greater prosperity in the north. Since their Emancipation from slavery, southern rural blacks had suffered in a plantation economy that offered little chance of advancement. While a few blacks were lucky enough to purchase land, most were sharecroppers, tenant farmers, or farm labors, barely subsiding from year to year. When World War I created a huge demand for workers in northern factories, many southern blacks took this opportunity to leave the oppressive economic conditions in the south. “The northern demand for workers was a result of the loss of 5 million men who left to serve in the armed forces, as well as the restriction of foreign immigration. Some sectors of the economy were so desperate for workers at this time that they would pay for blacks to migrate north. The Pennsylvania Railroad needed workers so badly that it paid the travel expenses of 12,000 blacks. The Illinois Central Railroad, along with many steel mills, factories, and tanneries, similarly provided free railroad passes for blacks. World War I was the first time since Emancipation that black labor was in demand outside of the agricultural south, and the economic promise was enough for many blacks to overcome substantial challenges to migrate.

“In additional to migrating for job opportunities, blacks also moved north in order to escape the oppressive conditions of the south. Some of the main social factors for migration included lynching, an unfair legal system, inequality in education, and denial of suffrage.”

Paul Cyrus Garvin (his middle name obviously given to him to honor his grandfather, Cyrus Garvey) was born on November 23, 1880, in Bluffton. Around 1902, he married Amelia Salmons, who was born about 1887 in South Carolina to Edward Salmons and Elizabeth Grayson. Amelia was the second oldest of 12 children.

Let’s step aside for a moment to discuss the Salmons family.

Amelia’s father was born about 1865 in North Carolina and her mother around 1868 in South Carolina. If their birthdates are correct, they were fortunate not to have been born into slavery.

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But they did have to endure the Reconstruction period following the Civil War and the segregation of the South.

All of their children were born in South Carolina. The 1910 U.S. Census had the family living in Bluffton, on Bulls Island. Edward was a farmer on land he rented and Elizabeth was working as a laundress for a private family. Edward was not able to read and write, but Elizabeth could. Their son, Henry, who was born in 1888, was a laborer on a sailboat. Their daughters, Nora, born in 1890, and Sarah, born in 1892, also were laundresses. The rest of the children – Minnie, born in 1894; Bertha, born in 1898; Alice, born in 1903; Janie, born in 1905; and Lemuel, born in 1910 – were at home.

When they moved North to New York City, Edward was working as a laborer in a shipyard and Elizabeth continued her work as a laundress. Their first-born child, James Edward – who lived with his parents when they moved to New York City and worked as an elevator operator – died two years later on January 7th in Manhattan at the age of 39 from pneumonia. He is buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Maspeth, Queens.

Edward died on May 5, 1933, at the age of 69 from uremia and is alsoburied in Mount Olivet Cemetery.

Two of Amelia’s siblings are of particular interest. Let’s take Lemuel first.

Born in 1905, he married Thelma Ragsdale, who was born on March 12, 1908, in Stamford, Connecticut, on July 14, 1925, in the municipal building in Manhattan. He was 21, she was 17. They had one daughter and one son.

In the 1930 U.S. Census, we see that Lemuel, 24, and Thelma, 20, were living in Manhattan with her widowed mother, Olga Ragsdale. What’s interesting is that Thelma’s occupation was listed as actress in a “legitimate show” and Lemuel was a traveling prize fighter in the welterweight class.

Being a traveling boxer in the 1920s and ’30s was not unusual. The website proboxing-fans.com reports:

“By the 1930s, boxing as an industry was established in a form that would be recognizable to modern fans. Gone were the days when a man would claim a world title and not defend it for years, preferring to pursue entertainment opportunities instead. Boxing was a national sport, second only to baseball in terms of popularity, ensuring a steady supply of contenders for a given crown. Also, the Great Depression drove men to fight for whatever purse was on offer, even if the fight was risky or at a disadvantage. Although some boxers occupied the comfortable position of being able to refuse risky and poorly paid fights, these men were few, far between, and truly occupied the pinnacle of the sport.

“The United States was the undisputed center of world boxing in the 1930s. European fighters figured less prominently than in prior decades, due in large part to the continuing echoes of the devastation of an entire generation of young men during the First World War. Another factor

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cementing the American hold on the sport was financing. As is the case in modern times, big fights followed the money and most of the money was in the United States. In an era when television was virtually unknown and live fight broadcasts meant listening to a commentator on the radio, seeing a fight meant attending the live event. Boxing’s popularity in America meant that big fights would routinely draw five-digit crowds, and local club fights could count on a steady audience.”

Lemuel’s name appeared in several newspaper articles about his boxing matches, including his wins and losses as well as his effort to stage a comeback in 1936. When he wasn’t fighting, he was the sergeant at arms for the Sunset Social and Athletic Club of New York.

Thelma died in December 1983 in New York at the age of 75. We do not know when Lemuel died.

As for Alice Salmons, who was born in 1903 in South Carolina, she, too, lived in Manhattan in 1920 with her family. But five years later, according to the 1925 New York State Census, when she was 22 years old, she was a boarder in the home of Clemet and Ethel Chase, who were born in Barbados. The enumerator was told that she was an actress.

Five years later, according to the 1930 U.S. Census, Alice was a boarder in the home of Mae Adderly on West 140st Street, which was very near the former residence of Paul and Amelia Garvin, who were living on West 141st Street in 1920 before they moved to Manhattan. Alice, then 26 years old, was working as a dancer in the theater.

On May 16, 1932, Alice married Linwood Dudley in Manhattan. According to the 1930 U.S. Census, Linwood, who was born around 1899 in Virginia, was a single man living in an apartment he rented for $80 a month at 274 140th Street in Manhattan prior to marrying Alice. He did have a roommate, or lodger, however – Callie Scott, 24, who also was born in Virginia, was married and worked as a maid for a private family. As for Linwood’s occupation at the time, the enumerator at first wrote “chauffer” for a private family, but it was crossed out on the census record.

The marriage between Alice and Linwood apparently didn’t last too long, as we find they were living apart in the 1940 U.S. Census. We presume they divorced, perhaps prior to 1935. In 1940, Linwood, 40, was a lodger in the home of Louise Randolph, 27, on West 136th Street and working as a tailor. Interestingly, we discovered that Louise and Linwood lived at the same place in 1935.

As for Alice in 1940, she was renting an apartment for $85 a month at 207 West 110th Street in Manhattan and had two lodgers. Alice, 37, was working as a domestic for a private family. We don’t know what happed to her theatrical career.

Back to Paul and Amelia Garvin.

In the 1910 U.S. Census, we see that Paul, Amelia and 3-year-old Oliver were living in Bluffton near his parents, Isaac and Jennie Garvin. Paul was working and living on a farm he rented. We

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suspect they moved shortly after the census was taken. In 1915, a newspaper in Bluffton reported:

“Mr. P.S. Garvin, formerly of Boston but now connected with the Ga. State College of Savannah, made a business trip here this week. He looked the picture of health.” .

We believe the article was incorrect in stating that he was formerly of Boston as we have no evidence that he lived there. And we are unsure of his connection to the college.

While he moved North for a better opportunity, he did visit Bluffton. The Savannah Tribune reported on August 30, 1919, that he spent four weeks with his parents, Isaac and Jennie, who were in their late 50s at the time.

The following year, when the 1920 U.S. Census was taken, we see that Paul had changed jobs and was working as a porter in an office building. The family was still living on West 141st Street, but had taken in two boarders – John Courtney, 32, who was a waiter on the Pennsylvania Railroad, and his wife, Selika, 27, who was working as a domestic in a private home.

But we also learn that Paul and Amelia, who already had a son, Oliver, who was 13 when the census was taken, had adopted a daughter, Dorothy, who was born on January 19, 1912, in New York City.

The Garvin family then moved from West 141st Street to 7th Avenue in Manhattan, we see in the 1925 New York State Census. Paul, too, had changed jobs and was working as a butler. Amelia was a housekeeper and Oliver was a waiter. Thirteen-year-old Dorothy was attending school. The Garvins also had taken in new boarders – Levi Hollen, 30, who was a mechanic; Herbert Pearson, 28, who was a chef; and James Collins, 23, who was a porter.

For reasons we don’t know – although we have our suspicions – the Garvin family moved to Washington, D.C., as evidenced by the U.S. City Directories for 1927 and 1928. Paul was working as a waiter on the Atlantic Coast Line (fig. 53). Considering Paul worked for the railroad, which was based out of Washington, D.C., it doesn’t surprise us that they moved to the nation’s Capital.

The Atlantic Coast Line (fig. 54), according to American-rails.com:

“was synonymous with the South and served points from Richmond, Virginia to Florida and east to Birmingham, Alabama. The railroad was also very profitable being that it served direct north- south routes from Florida to Richmond. It also held one of the most unique paint schemes of any Class I of both its day, having a beautiful purple and silver livery with yellow trim. Remembered in the likes of the Southern Railway in later years the ACL was highly respected throughout most of its existence and like the Southern was blessed with excellent management and never faced any serious bankruptcy threat up until its merger with the Seaboard Air Line in the late 1960s to form the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad.”

The article added:

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“As each of its original lines were slowly merged into the holding company the ACL grew tremendously just after the turn of the century when it acquired the Plant System, a series of rail lines running throughout Georgia and Florida, and took control of the Louisville & Nashville, which served northeastern points from the ACL’s core system. The rest of the railroad would come together in the 1920s when it gained control of the Atlanta, Birmingham & Coast giving it a link to western southeastern cities such as Birmingham, Alabama. In all, including its subsidiaries, the ACL was a giant system serving nearly every major southeastern market from Kentucky and Virginia, south to Alabama and Florida.

“When the ‘Great Depression’ hit in the fall of 1929 the ACL was able to weather the storm and the worst of the times (through the mid-1930s) by its excellent management team and frugal financial practices even though freight traffic was down more than 50% and passenger traffic was off by more than 60%. With the help of its subsidiary, the L&N, it was soundly able to avoid receivership and bankruptcy. After the Great Depression the Atlantic Coast Line would live out the rest of its life upgrading its equipment and infrastructure. By 1955 the railroad had totally dieselized its motive power fleet, purchasing locomotives from EMD, GE, and Alco. Also by the 1950s the railroad had upgraded its infrastructure substantially.

“The ACL also had a thriving passenger business for years, once again due to its well-positioned north-south routing. Because the railroad served literally the entirety of Florida it handled a number of trains coming from all different directions as travelers flocked to the state's sunny, tropical beaches.

“This strategic positioning of handling so many Florida-bound trains, coupled with its own passenger fleet, the railroad enjoyed the very rare privilege of the passenger business being profitable, even into the 1950s and 1960s when many railroads were bowing out of the market. The ACL was so successful that it even continued to build new stations and depots into the 1960s! As a result it’s interesting to wonder what the future may have held for the company had the railroad not merged. Alas, this was the ACL’s fate like so many others during the same period. Mergers, if planned and implemented correctly can save a railroad millions of dollars down the road and this was the very reason behind the merger with Seaboard Air Line, discussing the option seriously as early as the late 1950s.”

While living in Washington, D.C., the Garvins’ adopted daughter, Dorothy, died on June 25, 1927, at the age of 15 from acute pulmonary tuberculosis, according to her death certificate (fig. 55). She was buried in Harmony Cemetery on June 15, 1927.

The African-American cemetery formerly was situated at 9th Street NE and Rhode Island Avenue NE in Washington, D.C. It was constructed in 1859 and was the successor to the smaller Harmoneon Cemetery in downtown Washington. All of the graves were moved to National Harmony Memorial Cemetery in Landover, Maryland, in 1959.

Two years after Dorothy’s death, her brother, Oliver, married Theola Craig on November 27, 1929, in Manhattan.

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Oliver Cyrus Garvin – the only great-grandchild of Cyrus Garvey – was born on May 13, 1906, in South Carolina (fig. 56). He spent his early years in Bluffton, then moved with his family to New York City.

From 1920 to 1929, he was living with his parents. At the time of their marriage, Oliver, 23 [who says he was born in Savannah, Georgia], was working as a waiter and Theola Craig, who was born in 1911 in Norfolk, Virginia, was 18, according to their marriage certificate (fig. 57). Their wedding ceremony took place at Abyssinian Baptist Church (fig. 58) in Harlem and was officiated by the famed preacher the Rev. Adam Clayton Powell Sr. (fig. 59)

The Abyssinian Baptist Church was founded in 1808 by a group of parishioners who wanted to escape the segregation they encountered at another place of worship in New York and incorporated in 1859. On the church’s 100th anniversary in 1908, Adam Clayton Powell Sr. became its 17th pastor. The church’s website states:

“Reverend Powell devoted the first 12 years of his pastorate to the spiritual development and reorganization of the church, while promoting the idea of a model church in Harlem that would respond to the religious and social needs of African Americans. His ‘social gospel’ blended social activism with spiritual leadership and set the tone for the church’s ongoing mission of community service. Powell also was an early member of the NAACP, a colleague of Booker T. Washington, and of W.E.B. DuBois, and a participant in many advocacy activities of the Progressive Era.”

According to a biography on Find A Grave, Adam Clayton Powell Sr.:

“Born to slaves in May of 1865 in Franklin County, Virginia, he converted to Baptism in 1885 and studied law and politics at Virginia Union University from 1888 to 1892, graduating from the theological and academic departments. He went on to pastor several churches in St. Paul, Minnesota, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and New Haven, Connecticut, where one of his two children Adam, Jr. was born in 1908. In New Haven Powell was also a special student at Yale Divinity School.”

Additionally:

“During his tenure as pastor he managed to increase the congregation substantially. By 1923, a new building had been constructed, and he was responsible for building one of the first community recreation centers in Harlem. He also established a social/religious education program and by the mid-1930s, Abyssinian Baptist Church, boasting 14,000 members, had one of the largest Protestant congregations in America. During the Depression of the 1930s he campaigned to feed the poor and for better jobs and city services. Powell was also actively involved in the struggle against racism and lectured on race relations. He further was a founder of the National Urban League and an early leader in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.”

While the Find A Grave entry states that he was born to slaves, other sources point out that he was born a month after the Civil War ended in 1865 to a “free woman of color.” While he, his

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The Journey of a Freedman’s Family November, 2016 mother, grandmother and other early relatives were designated as “mulatto” – having mixed African and European ancestry – no documentation has ever been uncovered to show that his father was a white plantation owner.

From Wikipedia:

Adam Clayton Powell was born near Martin's Mill on Maggodee Creek, in Franklin County, Virginia. This was in the Piedmont, above the fall line of the Roanoke River. His mother Sally Dunning (b. 1842-1848-d. ?), a free woman of color, named her first son after her older brother Adam Dunning. He headed the family as a farmer. In 1860 Sallie was living with her mother Mildred, aunt Mary, and large family, including her grandmother Hannah; all the family were free mulattoes. Powell wrote in his autobiography that his mother never told him who his father was. He described her mother, Mildred Dunning (later listed as Malinda Dunnon, in the 1880 census), as “mostly Indian.” Mildred was still living with her daughter and family past 1880, so he knew her well. Powell showed his partial European ancestry, as he was fair and blue-eyed. Two years after Adam's birth, in 1867 his mother Sally married Anthony Bush (b. abt. 1845-d. 1937), a mulatto freedman (former slave). In the 1870 census, he used the surname Dunning, as did his and Sally's children.

“J. Daniel Pezzoni, a preservation consultant, noted in 1995 there was a local tradition linking Powell's family to Llewellyn Powell, a white planter who had property 10 miles away at Hale's Ford, but there was no documentary evidence for this. Wil Haygood, a 1993 biographer of Adam Clayton Powell Jr., mistakenly wrote that Sally Dunning was held as a slave by white farmer Llewellyn Powell at the time of her son Adam's birth. He asserted Powell was the father of Adam. Pezzoni noted Sally was a free woman of color, as were her mother and grandmother, proved by the 1860 census, which documented the three generations of the Dunning family.

“By 1880 the Dunning family had moved to Cabin Creek, Kanawha County, West Virginia, and taken new names. Anthony, his wife and children took the surname Powell. According to biographer Charles V. Hamilton, Anthony Bush ‘decided to take the name Powell as a new identity.’ Sally's mother Mildred Dunning was listed as Malinda Dunnon in 1880, apparently changing her name, too for their new lives in West Virginia. There was a growing African- American community in the Kanawha Valley, attracted to jobs in mills and in coal production. In 1880 Anthony Powell worked at the dam; Adam Powell at age 15 worked hauling water at the mines, and Malinda Dunnon worked as a weaver. Anthony reared Adam as his stepson, and he and Sally had several children together.

“Adam Clayton Powell Sr. identified as black in the South and in his life. Later in life he easily passed as white for convenience when traveling by train in the South; he used it to gain better accommodations in the segregated railroad cars. In a 2010 article on the racial identities of Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and his father, Lawrence Rushing, a social scientist, notes that the senior Powell had no documented African ancestry other than the census classification of his mother and her family as mulatto. He suggested that mulatto could be an indeterminate term, and that Powell had chosen his identity rather than identifying as white.”

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In 1937, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. succeeded his father as pastor when he retired from the church. The elder Powell died on June 12, 1953, and is buried in Flushing Cemetery in Queens County, New York.

In addition to his pastorate, Adam Jr. served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1945 to 1971 and was one of the leaders in the fight for civil rights. He died on April 4, 1972, in Florida and his ashes reportedly were scattered in the waters of Bimini in the Bahamas.

Considering that Adam Sr. and the Abyssinian church were at the height of their popularity in 1929 when Oliver and Theola were married, we find the wording of the wedding announcement published in the December 7, 1929, New York Age interesting:

“Miss Theola Craig, a newcomer to Yonkers, was quietly married at Abyssinian Baptist Church, New York City, Wednesday last to Oliver Garvin of New York City. The newlyweds will reside in Jamaica, N.Y.”

That wasn’t the last time her name appeared in print. The New York Age, reporting on happenings in Jamaica, Queens, noted on April 9, 1938, that Theola hosted a get-together at her house. Then on October 1, 1938, the paper reported that she was seen “minus hubbie” and on December 16, 1939, that she had a new hairdo.

Most curious was on March 9. 1940, when Arlyne Joseph in her “Jamaica Journal” column for the New York Age reported that “why doesn’t Bill Hughes own up that he’s that way about Theola Garvin.”

The mystery was solved about Hughes’ interest in Theola when we found the Virginia Marriage Records, 1936-2014, showing that Theola Helen Craig, 27, married William Ulysses Hughes, 30, on June 24, 1940 (fig. 60). William was born in 1910 Harrellsville, North Carolina.

So it would seem that Theola and Oliver Garvin’s marriage only lasted about 10 years before they apparently divorced.

Oliver, though, remarried. We find him in the 1940 U.S. Census living in Rockville Centre in Nassau County, New York, with Frances Garvin, 23, who was born in Virginia. They were living in the home of Herbert Strauss and his family. Oliver was working as a butler and Frances as a maid, presumably for the Strauss family. Herbert Strauss was the owner of a meat market.

At the outbreak of World War II, Oliver joined the U.S. Army as a private on April 1, 1941. He started his active duty service on January 16, 1942, and by the time he left the Army he was a 1st sergeant.

On the U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946, we learn that he completed one year of high school, was married and was 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed 143 pounds.

At the age of 58, Oliver Cyrus Garvin died on February 26, 1964. He is buried in Long Island National Cemetery in Farmingdale, New York (fig. 61). His gravestone inscription denotes his

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The Journey of a Freedman’s Family November, 2016 service during World War II. We presume that he was divorced as his second wife, Frances was not buried with him. Despite our efforts, we were unable to obtain a copy of Oliver’s death certificate from New York. We assume that his father Paul was the informant on his death certificate as he was still living in Jamaica, Queens.

Long Island National Cemetery contains the remains of servicemen and –women and their families. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs:

“Establishment of the cemetery in 1936 reflected one aspect of the rapid urbanization of American society in the post-World War I period. With nearly five million veterans of that conflict alone eligible for interment in a national cemetery, it was evident that existing facilities in the vicinity of large urban areas were insufficient. The situation was particularly critical in New York City and its environs. The only federal cemetery in the area, Cypress Hills National Cemetery in Brooklyn, established in 1862, had limited acreage available for burials. In response, in 1936 Congress authorized the Secretary of War to purchase suitable land to enlarge the existing cemetery. After considerable research and numerous site investigations, the War Department instead purchased 175 acres from Pinelawn Cemetery for the construction and development of a new national cemetery.

“The lack of available gravesites in Cypress Hills National Cemetery made it necessary to develop the new facility rapidly, and the land was sufficiently cleared to permit the first burials in March 1937. Moreover, between March and November that year, a total of 426 interments were made. During its first eight years, Long Island National Cemetery held 10,167 interments.”

We do not know when Frances, Theola or William died.

We believe that following Dorothy’s death, Paul and Amelia returned to New York City. And that’s where we found them in the 1930 U.S. Census, living in Jamaica, Queens, on 158th Street. And they had a houseful in the home they owned, which was valued at $7,500.

In addition to Paul and Amelia, their son and daughter-in-law, Amelia’s parents, and three children they were boarding, all resided in the house. Paul and Oliver were working as waiters on the railroad and Amelia was a foster mother, thus the three children in her care. The three children all were born in South Carolina.

One of those children, Edith Weston, continued to live with the family when she was 18 years old, according to the 1940 U.S. Census. She had three years of high school education but was unemployed in 1940. The Garvins had taken on three new foster children, ranging in age from 12 to 15.

We learn from the 1940 U.S. Census that Paul had completed eight years of schooling and Amelia had six. Paul was working still as a waiter on the Atlantic Coast Railroad.

From the U.S. World War II Draft Registration Cards, we learn yet another spelling of Paul’s middle name. In some records, it had been Cyrus (like his grandfather), Syrus or Sirus – the last being the case in the World War II draft card. But more interesting than that, we learn that Paul

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was tall and lean at 6 feet tall and 154 pounds with brown eyes, black hair and a light brown complexion. (figs. 62 & 63)

Genetics being what they are, we suspect that Paul inherited the looks of his grandparents, Cyrus and Ellie Garvey, who, if you’ll recall, were listed in census records as being mulatto.

In 1949, Amelia Salmons Garvin died at the age of 48 at her home on 158th Street in Queens. Although we don’t know the exact date of death, she was buried on May 13, 1949, in the west lawn section of Mount Olivet Cemetery in Maspeth, Queens, according to her burial card (fig. 64). She is buried in the same cemetery as her father, brother and Lucy Spring, who, you’ll recall, was the honoree at the flinch party in Bluffton hosted by Isaac and Jennie Garvin in 1905. No gravestone marks where Amelia is buried.

Six years after his mother, Jennie Garvin, died in 1954, Paul sold the Garvin House and waterfront property in Bluffton on August 13, 1961, to John Samuel Graves (BCDB, 84:108) for $12,000, and “expressly reserved unto himself the right to maintain his residence upon conveyed premises for the remainder of his lifetime.”

Gerald Beckman Graves somehow ended up becoming the sole owner of the house, but in 1970 he sold it to the Bluffton Oyster Cooperative Inc. for $48,000 (BCDB, 171:73).

When Paul sold the property in 1961, the Garvin House left family ownership forever.

By 1972, when he died, Paul Cyrus Garvin was the sole surviving member of his family. His adopted daughter died in 1927, his father in 1936, his wife in 1949, his mother in 1954 and his son in 1964. He outlived them all.

On March 6, 1972, Paul died in Jamaica Hospital at the age of 81, according to his burial card (fig. 65). He is buried with his wife, Amelia, in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Maspeth. As with Oliver’s death certificate, we were unable to obtain one for Paul. We had hoped to learn who the informant was.

Paul Cyrus Garvin was the last of the Garvey/Garvin family, and with his death, the family name died as well. Only the house (fig. 66) in Bluffton remains to remind us of the family who once called it home.

Conclusion While we have provided a comprehensive look into Cyrus Garvey, his family and his associates, more needs to be done to provide an even greater picture of the man, his origins and his surroundings. There are no direct Garvin/Garvey descendants, but we believe that through the wives of Paul and Isaac and their extended families, we would be able to discover more on the Garvins/Garveys. In particular, further research into the Garvey Hall Plantation, where we believe Cyrus Garvey was born into slavery and lived his early years, would be a worthwhile and valuable endeavor.

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Fig. 48

“Oystermen,” a painting by Alan Campbell of Athens, Georgia, captures the Bluffton Oyster Co. and its workers. Reprinted with the permission of the Artist.

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Fig. 66

Believed to be the earliest freedman-owned and -constructed dwelling on the May River in Bluffton, South Carolina, the Garvin House offers an authentic window into the culture and economic circumstances of African Americans during the Reconstruction period. Located at the terminus of Wharf Street in the Bluffton Historic District, the 1,140-square-foot house is surrounded by the Bluffton Oyster Factory Park and neighborhood. Beaufort County owns the parcel on which the Garvin House is located. The Beaufort County Open Land Trust has a restrictive covenant and the Town of Bluffton owns the adjacent parcel and has an agreement with Beaufort County for operation and maintenance of the park and the facilities. The Town of Bluffton is leading the crusade and has secured grants to restore and rehabilitate the structure, which will be open to the public. As is noted on a sign at the site, “The Garvin House serves as a strong connection to the town’s past and an important cultural resource for the future of Bluffton.”

The Garvin House, Bluffton, South Carolina